Excerpted conversation at Grist on Obama speech

Josh Freed: moratorium until reg improvements are identified and implemented is an important step.
5:10
David Roberts: What set of facts or procedures can make a massive, highly technical undertaking like this "absolutely safe"? Answer: none.
5:10
Kate Sheppard: MMS "emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility"
5:10
Michael Brune: Josh - how about a permanent moratorium?
5:11
David Roberts: Finally, he's taking on the *philosophy* behind the wreckage of MMS.
5:11
Josh Freed: Michael: Unfortunately, we're stuck with oil from somewhere, at least for a while. Key is getting on a glide path to end our reliance.
5:11
Kate Sheppard: Well, at least MMS' ass is getting kicked.
5:11
David Roberts: Michael Bromwitch has no experience w/ the oil industry, does he?
5:11

Nice rhetoric about regulation; now let's see him live up to it.
5:12

MMS Afghanistan should get one of them -just like us- or they might end up in a lot of trouble.
5:12
Kate Sheppard: No, but seems to have experience with reform. Might be better to have someone not tainted by tons of oil experience?
5:12
Michael Brune: No experience, David, but we hear good things about him at Justice, rooting out corruption, etc
5:12
Josh Freed: Dave: He has long experience fixing failed bureaucracy
5:12

Obama must not read Rolling Stone
5:12
Josh Freed: That's what MMS needs.
5:12
David Roberts: "No matter how much we improve regulation, drilling involves risk." We're going deeper and deeper to get oil which is harder and harder to find.
5:12
Kate Sheppard: This is the major problem -- regulators with background in oil and gas have been too close to industry.
5:13
David Roberts: "Lack of courage" why we're still hooked on oil. And by "lack of courage" I mean the U.S. Senate.
5:13

Wonder who's going to be on that investigative commission...
5:13
Josh Freed: This is the ball game.
5:13
Michael Brune: Not only are we going deeper and deeper, but if you look at most of the major oil companies' growth projections, deepwater oil and unconventionals (tar sands) is all they have
5:13
David Roberts: "The time to embrace a clean energy future is now." Yes.
5:13
Kate Sheppard: Jessica, which one -- they announced the oil spill commission yesterday
5:13
Kate Sheppard: Hey look David, energy efficiency!
5:14
Josh Freed: This is the key -- developing clean energy in US will bring us economic growth.
5:14
David Roberts: I hate when he acts like ARRA is enough. That money's gonna run out. What about long-term, *sustainable* policy?
5:14
Josh Freed: "the transition to clean energy has the potential to bring us millions of jobs"
5:14

Come on, Obama. Don't let us down. Push us away from fossil fuels, and hard.
5:14
Kate Sheppard: "Only if we accelerate that transition." Come on, say it -- "carbon cap." you can do it!
5:14
David Roberts: "Accelerate the transition. Sieze the moment." Say it ... saaaay it ...
5:14
Michael Brune: Is Obama going to mention comprehensive climate leg, or is this all clean energy?
5:15
David Roberts: "Energy and climate bill." Hey, he said "climate"! Kinda.
5:15

Yay, clean energy instead of nuclear! This is a major step from the state of the union.
5:15
Kate Sheppard: "We can't afford not to change how we produce and use energy."
5:15
Michael Brune: right on, Emily!
5:15
Josh Freed: David -- another efficiency mention.
5:15
David Roberts: Yay efficiency!
5:15

I'm glad he's giving the fact that we NEED to move past fossil fuels plenty of attention. Wasn't sure he would.
5:15
David Roberts: Yay wind and solar!
5:16
David Roberts: Yay more R&D!
5:16
David Roberts: Yay carbon pric... oh, wait, he didn't say that.
5:16
Josh Freed: Emily -- We cannot eliminate carbon without some nuclear energy as part of our baseload electricity mix.
5:16

This is Americas new declaration of independence. This is history.
5:16
Kate Sheppard: All these ideas "deserve a fair hearing" ... "the one idea i will not settle for is inaction." NO! Give direction! You're the decider!
5:16
David Roberts: Always the rhetoric about listening and accepting what Congress does. They need adult supervision, dude!
5:17

when are we going to get over "man-on-the-moon syndrome"? that's all we ever hear about, from spill to AfPak to Iraq...
5:17
David Roberts: There's nothing he's said that Republicans couldn't point to and say, "yeah, our plan does that."
5:17
Kate Sheppard: "We know we'll get there." ... but Senate needs pushing!
5:17

Josh- Where do you store the spent nuclear rods & waste?
5:17

Nuclear energy doesn't eliminate carbon, Josh.
5:17
David Roberts: And, finish with touching anecdote ...
5:17

LBJ would deliver a price on carbon, now he could kick ass.
5:18
Josh Freed: Apologies for instigating a debate on nuclear :-)
5:18
David Roberts: Gawd, please not another one of those...
5:18
Michael Brune: Wow, David Roberts is a cynical man...

I bet Kate is wiping away tears
5:18

Dave - he did say get off of fossil fuels - which the Rs definetly don't say...
5:18
Kate Sheppard: I do tear up when I think about life without shrimp, it's true.
5:19
David Roberts: There is a time for soaring, aspirational rhetoric. But right now there's a bill forming in the Senate. There are *specific policies* that will mark its success or failure. It's time for Obama to get down in the @^~! mix. And yet he remains floating above...
5:19
Michael Brune: Mr. Kretzmann, he did say getting off fossil fuels. "...as long as they tackle our addiction to fossil fuels..."
5:19
Josh Freed: The president did lay down the line on where he wants the country to go. Key question now is how expects us to get there.
5:19

No Carbon Cap Kate
5:19
David Roberts: Now the public is inspired and yet it still has no idea how to distinguish good climate policy from bad.

Michael Brune: Is Obama going to mention comprehensive climate leg, or is this all clean energy?
5:15
David Roberts: "Energy and climate bill." Hey, he said "climate"! Kinda.
5:15

When I was a candidate for this office, I laid out a set of principles that would move our country towards energy independence. Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill –- a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses.

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