Does Hillary Clinton oppose Arctic drilling?



The Arctic is a unique treasure and USA is keen to drill it for oil. Recently, the President Barack Obama administration granted the Shell the final permit it needed to drill deep into the waters off the Alaskan coast—a move that stoked the outrage of green groups nationwide. Many prominent Americans have protested the Obama move in the Arctic. 

Despite her positions on other key climate issues remain nebulous, the US presidential candidate and former US secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has opposed the planned drilling in the Arctic saying the action, if commissioned, would put USA at heavy risk. 

While Clinton expressed "skepticism" about Arctic drilling less than a month ago, her position appears to have evolved since then. Her clarified position is likely to bolster her standing among greens, some of whom have previously questioned her focus on environmental issues. But her stances on other key climate issues, such as construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, remain nebulous.

Clinton's rivals for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley, have clearly stated their opposition to Arctic drilling.

Meanwhile, one of Clinton's leading opponents on the Republican side Jeb Bush took to twitter to express an alternate viewpoint: He calls Hillary Clinton wrong saying being more-anti energy than Obama is extreme. He wants Americans to embrace energy revolution to lower prices and create US jobs.

Arctic drilling is sure to be a contentious issue in the presidential campaign as more Arctic lease sales are scheduled for 2016 and 2017. Clinton joins scores of scientists and climate activists who oppose drilling in the pristine northern region.

The online advocacy group Care2 announced that it has collected more than a quarter of a million signatures for a petition calling on Obama to reject oil and natural gas exploration and drilling in the Arctic Ocean. The current decision communicates that US coasts and wildlife are not a priority to the nation's leaders, who are seriously sacrificing US plus global pristine Arctic environment for short-term gains.

The timing of her announcement couldn't be more transparent. She waits for it to be a done deal and plays her part on stage to bewilder the masses. The CEO of Shell in this instance would perhaps give the whole charade a chuckle as he would, as a usual practice   of coercing the corporates to get quick money from the concerned as he would write a cheque to Hillary towards poll campaign funds.

The Arctic will be free of ice possibly sooner than later. World is in abrupt Climate Chaos - western forests on fire, droughts, floods, record braking heat waves, global heat records, record freezing winters – and will be repeated next year on a more deadly scale. By putting massive amounts of green house gases into the atmosphere, Americans are not going back to a predictable climate.

Even shifting the rhetoric is a stark improvement in this case though. Clinton has gone from vague obfuscation to Obamaesque pandering. She sees what's happening with Sanders as well as we do. So she is shifting left - taking "positions", as they say. By the time of the primary debates, her and Sanders will be talking nearly the same. His genuineness versus her pandering will hopefully show through strongly.

Hillary will not be taking the same positions as Sanders because she wants to be in a good position for the general election. This statement on the Arctic makes her vulnerable to attack by the Republicans. Perhaps this is one that she thought was worth the risk to get more support on the left. She in engaged in a balancing act trying to be central enough for the general election but to the left enough to win the nomination.

Hillary Clinton's problem is her own long record as a solid neoliberal -- pro-war, anti-poor, pro-corporate empowerment, anti-New Deal. It's unfortunate that some of the media marketed to the liberal bourgeoisie (MSNBC, etc.) have gone into overdrive to sell Clinton. But it's truly a grave misfortune that so many potential voters seem far more interested in the show than in the facts.

Mrs.  Clinton has nothing to say about the Pentagon move for drone globalization. The Pentagon is poised to dramatically increase the deployment of surveillance drones over "global hot spots" such as Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, the South China Sea, and North Africa, as well as expand its capacity for lethal drone strikes. The Pentagon envisions a combined effort that by 2019 would have the Air Force continue flying 60 drone flights a day, the Army contributing as many as 16 and the military’s Special Forces Command pitching in with as many as four.  The number of daily flights by aircraft such as MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones will surge an estimated 50 percent. Further, the expanded drone program will "draw on the Army, as well as Special Operations Command and government contractors," in addition to the US Air Force, which currently carries out most of the operations for the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency.

The Obama regime is currently holding talks with a number of North African countries over the possibility of erecting drone bases within their borders, expanding the military footprint in order allegedly unmask so-called "blind spots" in Islamic State strongholds such as Libya and Tunisia. According to the latest tally from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, since 2002 there have been as many as 620 total U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan, killing up to 5,460 people including as many as 1,106 civilians.

Is very much an authoritarian leader who supports imperialist policies to advance US global interests. Her opposition to Arctic drills appears to be a drama. 

President Obama, an escalator of terror wars in Mideast starting with destabilization of Libya, and who is now using his African background to get African nations to host US drone stations, is not a leader on climate change - opening up the Arctic to drilling and opening up the Atlantic for drilling and unlimited fracking - Obama is part of the Climate problem. Americans need to deal with this problem! The feedback climate loops are beginning to close the climate game and send humans to extinction.

Humans are now in the 6th great extinction and we caused it. The last great animal extinction was 95 million years ago. It is time to act. We cannot wait. We are in deep trouble. This is the worse crises humans have ever faced. We simply cannot trust Obama or Hillary or Bush or any other US leader because they all promote imperialism for protecting the capitalist interests!


 

 


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