Burn Baby Burn: Obama Massively Expands Coal Exploration As Well As Approving New Offshore Drilling

Environmentalists are again calling foul after the announcement of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that the Obama Administration has approved the expansion in coal mining and four new permits for deepwater offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The increased coal production could cause U.S. climate pollution to rise by more than 50 percent, Glenn Hurowitz, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, has claimed that the expansion of the coal production could increase pollution by more than 50 percent.

As noted below, environmentalist are noting that the expansion occurring after a recent Harvard study found the country’s dependence on coal “costs taxpayers about $345 billion a year in medical bills for health problems and pollution that occur in and around mining communities and power plants.”

Once again, larger environmental groups appear to be relatively silent over such changes — as opposed to their more vocal opposition to the same policies by Bush. Environmentalists appear to be having the same division as other liberal groups in opposing Obama. Civil libertarians remain the most vocal and opposed to Obama among traditionally liberal groups.

Source: Mother Earth News