Stephen Lendman

America already is energy independent.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, it has enough oil and natural gas reserves alone to provide US energy needs for many decades to come, along with vast amounts of coal.

So why was an energy independence EO issued?

It has nothing to do with “promot(ing) clean and safe development of our Nation’s vast energy resources,” nothing about assuring “affordable, reliable, safe, secure, and clean” electricity, nothing to do with “promot(ing) clean air and clean water,” nothing about environmental safety, as claimed.

It has everything to do with unrestrained profit-making, consumer rights and ecosanity ignored.

It orders elimination of regulations and other actions “potentially burden(ing) the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy…”

NYT editors blasted the EO for the wrong reason, claiming it “risks the planet” by “demoli(shing) most of (Obama’s) policies to combat climate change.”

It “repudiate(s)” the so-called 2015 Paris Climate Agreement without formal US withdrawal, pledging greenhouse gas reductions - without fulfillment.

Serious Paris COP21 discussions among hundreds of representatives from 196 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) countries were dead on arrival.

They fell short of a whimper, let alone a bang, environmental and other civil society groups hoped for.

Meaningful results were absent - impossible to achieve because America and its key allies refused to address a potentially catastrophic future problem without constructive action taken now.

Friends of the Earth International (FEI) accused America and other “(r)ich countries (of) mov(ing) the goal posts” to serve their monied interests - calling the Paris agreement “a sham.”

Hype and deception substituted for vitally needed tough measures. America and other rich countries refused to cut their fossil fuel use enough to matter.

Tokenism won’t prevent an inevitable eco-disaster without meaningful action to prevent it - not forthcoming in Paris, no prospect in the foreseeable future.

Thousands of environmental activists protested in Paris, their numbers stretching over two km - from the Arc de Triomphe to the city’s business district.

At the time, media scoundrels lied, claiming a historic breakthrough deal, promising a green future, The New York Times among them, praising what didn’t happen.

No meaningful change in fossil fuel use was agreed on, nothing addressing climate change or planetary pollution.

Dirty business as usual prevailed, no historical ecological triumph.

Times editors justifiably criticized Trump’s Tuesday EO. Providing misinformation about the Paris agreement destroyed the arguments it made.

Ecosanity depends on replacing fossil fuels and nuclear energy with clean, green, renewable alternatives - along with eliminating all other harmful to human health/environmentally destructive toxins.

Humanity’s survival depends on it.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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