State of the Science, 2012

In the Wednesday morning quarterbacking that followed this year’s State of the Union, pundits aired the perennial complaint that the President’s speech ran too long, heavily-laden with a Clinton-style laundry list of programs. But citizens like to hear their favorite programs mentioned, and we in the science community are no exception! Technical education and funding for basic research briefly made the list, but the majority of the attention went to energy. The President pitched “clean” energy from wind, sun and reduced waste, alongside a drill-baby-drill enthusiasm for oil and gas exploration, while sidestepping any awkward mention of nuclear energy.

Here’s a replay of exciting moments in #SOTU, interleaved with a sampling of comments tweeted out of the eco-science bubbleverse.

Enter POTUS, with entourage.
Shaking hands as he moves down the aisle, he sweeps down upon Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz) for a rare moment of bipartisan good-feeling. Giffords will formally resign on the following day to continue her recovery from the terrible head wound she suffered in a shooting last year.

“As the camera pans around the Capitol chamber for President Obama’s
State of the Union address, see if you can spot the representatives from
the state of Oil: four avid supporters of the Keystone XL Pipeline who
will attend the speech as the guests of House Speaker John Boehner.” Scott Rosenberg, reporting in real-time on Gristlist.

[*President Obama didn’t actually kill the Keystone XL Pipeline; he rejected a bid from TransCanada. The project is on hold pending a State Department environmental review. Tune in to EcoTone’s Policy News this Friday to learn more.]

POTUS: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

[Kate Sheppard is clearly reading ahead in the script, because POTUS is still talking about courage, selflessness and teamwork, and coming together to get the job done, like the military (and unlike some other people he isn’t going to name– cough, Congress).]

POTUS: On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of
collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at
stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded
responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their
differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today,
General Motors is back on top as the world’s number one automaker.
Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford
is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the
entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs.
We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. And tonight, the American auto industry is back. 

What’s happening in Detroit can happen in other industries. It can happen in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Raleigh.

POTUS: I also hear from many business leaders who want to hire in the United
States but can’t find workers with the right skills. Growing industries
in science and technology have twice as many openings as we have
workers who can do the job. Think about that – openings at a time when
millions of Americans are looking for work.

[We at EcoTone would also be interested to know the source of this claim.]

POTUS: Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to
become community career centers – places that teach people skills that
local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to
high-tech manufacturing.

POTUS: Innovation also demands basic research. Today, the discoveries taking
place in our federally-financed labs and universities could lead to new
treatments that kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones untouched.

POTUS: New lightweight vests for cops and soldiers that can stop any bullet.

POTUS: Don’t gut these investments in our budget. Don’t let other countries
win the race for the future. Support the same kind of research and
innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet; to new
American jobs and new American industries.

POTUS: Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made
energy. Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres
for oil and gas exploration , and tonight, I’m directing my
Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore
oil and gas resources. Right now, American oil production is the
highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right – eight years. Not
only that – last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the
past sixteen years. 

But with only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, oil isn’t enough.
This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops
every available source of American energy – a strategy that’s cleaner,
cheaper, and full of new jobs.

POTUS: We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly one hundred
years, and my Administration will take every possible action to safely
develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than
600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

POTUS: And I’m requiring all companies
that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use.
America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety
of our citizens at risk.

POTUS: And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of
thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this
natural gas out of shale rock –

POTUS: Our experience with shale gas shows us that the payoffs on these public
investments don’t always come right away. Some technologies don’t pan
out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of
clean energy.

POTUS: We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences
in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan
to fight climate change. But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t
at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for
innovation.

POTUS: We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some
dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a
spill – because milk was somehow classified as an oil. With a rule like
that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.

POTUS: I’m confident a farmer can contain a milk spill without a federal agency
looking over his shoulder. But I will not back down from making sure
an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two
years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury
pollution, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ response: The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or
cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands,
or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human
health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy.