Michael Knigge: Big Failures, Small Successes For Obama's Environmental Record

As presidential candidate Barack Obama ran on a bold "green agenda". He vowed to reverse the climate change policy of his predecessor and push for "green" jobs. But one year before the election the results are mixed at best. "Few challenges facing America, and the world, are more urgent than combating climate change," President-elect Obama declared in California two weeks after the 2008 vote, and he promised: "My presidency will mark a new chapter in American leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs, and there was no shortage of events and incidents to help galvanize support for this ambitious environmental platform. In his first year in office, with a Democrat-controlled Congress and just two months after being honored with the Nobel Peace Price, President Obama, armed with the latest research outlining the dire consequences of climate change, attended what was arguably the most high stakes environmental policy drama ever staged: the Copenhagen Climate Conference. The result was the biggest reality check for anyone who believed Barack Obama could indeed restore American leadership on climate issues. The Copenhagen conference couldn't agree on a comprehensive global climate regime and is widely regarded as the final nail in the coffin of serious international climate legislation. That was in December 2009. Four months later, and much closer to home, the biggest oil spill in history wreaked havoc on the marine environment in the Gulf of Mexico, but after a government-mandated moratorium on drilling that ended a year ago, it has been basically back to business as usual for the petroleum industry in the Gulf and elsewhere.