Ambinder is a great political reporter and analyst, but sometimes he just has these moments...For a Democratic president, this is a pretty gutsy move to open the public debate about an energy bill. Or, well, maybe it's not: it's high-reward, low-risk; environmentalists will complain, but then again, environmentalists complain. Aside from the substance, which is beyond our ken, the politics of this move is easy: with one fell swoop, Obama deprives Republicans of the major talking point they'd use to object to more expansive government-based climate remediation and energy prospecting policy.
So, to recap: Environmentalists complain about stuff all the time, and I haven't bothered to learn whether their complaints are valid or not, but here's who wins the Washington horse race at the end of the day.
Ambinder isn't a policy reporter, but, y'know, that is why the politics matters. If you're going to causally dismiss a group of people who are concerned about an issue and have bothered to learn some of the facts behind it, you better have a good argument as to why their complaints don't matter. A lot of the most important political advances in our history have come from groups that complain -- civil-rights activists complain, LGBTQ activists complain, certainly the advocates of health-care reform complained a lot. The substance of their complaints isn't beyond the ken of anyone who wants to learn.
Here's Grist's quick reaction to the new policy, which notes that the policy may not even be worthwhile for the gas companies since, climate expert Joe Romm explains, there may actually be very little oil out there. Here is Brad Plumer's take.
-- Tim Fernholz
