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David Victor on Barack Obama's Environmental Record

Barack Obama's record on the environment

07/25/2011
David Victor, The Guardian

When Obama won the presidency in 2008, environmentalists were optimistic. So how is Obama doing? Yale Environment 360 asked a group of environmentalists and energy experts for their verdicts on the president's performance.

More than 2 ½ years have passed since President Barack Obama took office — a sufficient length of time to assess what he has accomplished, or at least started to accomplish. To gauge his record on the environment, Yale Environment 360 asked a variety of environmental leaders, writers, and policy experts to answer the following questions: How would you assess President Obama's record on energy and the environment? And what do you consider his major accomplishments and failures in these fields?

In their responses, several common themes emerged. Most felt the president's greatest failures were his tepid support of climate legislation, which ultimately went down to defeat, and his refusal to rally the country to fight global warming. His greatest successes were seen as setting strict vehicle mileage standards and funding energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. And his greatest challenge going forward? A majority of our contributors said it was fending off an all-out assault on environmental policies and regulations from Tea Partyers and other conservatives in Congress.

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David Victor is Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation (ILAR). Looking across a wide array of issues from environment and energy to human rights, trade and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws actually work.

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