Empty Rhetoric?

As I watched Obama’s speech last Wednesday, I was excited. His discussion of cutting America’s oil dependence rang true to everything we had been talking about in class. However, after the initial excitement wore off, I started to wonder how feasible his statements really were. While it would be great if we cut back on the amount of oil imported each day and worked towards making energy efficient technologies more available, it seems like an unlikely goal unless political will on both sides grows. One of the articles discussed the Republicans reactions to Obama’s speech, calling it “same old, same old”. Even Obama admitted that countless politicians have vowed to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, what makes Obama so sure that his administration can do that? Considering the current political gridlock, it seems unlikely that both sides will ever come to an agreement about a policy framework for Obama’s proposal. I fear that his speech will just turn into empty rhetoric because action towards his goal will be hard to sustain.

I also wonder if Obama’s suggestions are enough. His speech was still overwhelmingly centered on economic growth through clean energy markets. However, as we have been discussing in class, growth might be the wrong thing to focus on. Bill McKibben wrote that we should be focused on maintaining the huge wealth that we already possess. While this is a huge deviation from mainstream thought and economics, it might be a necessary change if we are going to weather the storm of climate change.