Enviros press Obama to drop ‘all of the above’ strategy in favor of ‘climate impact lens’
A coalition of 18 environmental groups yesterday called on President Obama to stop touting an “all of the above” energy strategy — a shorthand expression that lawmakers from both parties often employ to show support for traditional and renewable fuel sources.
Instead, the organizations — including the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund — assert the White House needs to apply a climate test to all decisions, including the looming Keystone XL pipeline and additional drilling on public lands.
“We believe that continued reliance on an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy would be fundamentally at odds with your goal of cutting carbon pollution and would undermine our nation’s capacity to respond to the threat of climate disruption,” stated the letter, which praised Obama for the climate plan he unveiled in June. “With record-high atmospheric carbon concentrations and the rising threat of extreme heat, drought, wildfires and super storms, America’s energy policies must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, not simply reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
The organizations assert that the Obama administration must “prioritize” renewable energy sources, while also working to curb fossil fuel usage.
“We believe that a climate impact lens should be applied to all decisions regarding new fossil fuel development, and urge that a ‘carbon-reducing clean energy’ strategy rather than an ‘all of the above’ strategy become the operative paradigm for your administration’s energy decisions,” the letter states.
The letter is signed by American Rivers, Clean Water Action, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, the Energy Action Coalition, Environment America, the Environmental Defense Fund, Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the Native American Rights Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Oceana, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Population Connection, the Sierra Club and Voices for Progress.