Max Aufhammer (The Future is at Stake):
The past eight years of the Obama presidency have brought monumental change for the better in the environmental and energy arena. We have made significant progress on fuel economy standards, emissions standards for power plants, the introduction of a real social cost of carbon into federal rulemaking, the rapidly increasing penetration of renewables on people’s roofs and on the people’s plains and in their valleys. President Obama will go into the history books as the first African American president. I would argue that he will be remembered by many future generations as the Greenest president this country has ever had.
Many of the recent regulations are being passed in the form of command and control with significant flexibility built in. Still, these are not the economists’ preferred choice. Yet, team Obama got it done. He had great counsel during his eight years in office, helping design programs that built in flexibility where possible. Joe Aldy, Ann Wolverton, Nat Keohane, Billy Pizer, Gib Metcalf, Michael Greenstone, Arik Levinson, Matt Kotchen, Glenn Sheriff, Sheila Olmstead, Gilbert Metcalf, and Kenny Gillingham are just a few of the brilliant environmental economists that spent time in the White House and at Treasury helping design and implement smarter and more efficient policies. I do note a curious absence of Berkeley environmental economists, but maybe Secretary Clinton will deck the halls with Berkeley folks if elected. We’re here for you Madam Secretary.
Maybe the most significant achievement and point of departure is the signing of the Paris accord. No previous administration has managed to credibly commit the US to meaningful greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Clinton (Bill, President) signed the Kyoto agreement, knowing full well that Congress would never ratify it. Under Obama, we signed an agreement that does not need to be ratified by Congress as the reductions can be achieved through agency actions. ...
And let us not forget that Candidate Obama ran for election with a cap-and-trade policy proposal. Other candidates for the title of greenest (with major accomplishments in parentheses) are Theodore Roosevelt (National Park System), Richard Nixon (Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act) George H. W. Bush (Clean Air Act Amendents of 1990 [aka, Acid Rain Program]). So now that we know the nominees, who do you think is the greenest President in U.S. history?
You can follow the results here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-KWTDJP2N/.
*Something that only I might be interested in ... I'm not sure why "Greenest" is capitalized in the text. In addition to an awesome color, is it a proper noun? I wrote it in lower case in the title but would be happy to stand corrected.
