Barack Obama, by default has become America’s premier “Green” Politian.  The policies he makes as president will reshape the environmental policy of the United States for years to come.  

Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, was very quietly a president who ruled against the environment on repeated occasions according to critics.  Additionally, on his way out of the office of president, Mr. Bush is seeking to initiate a wave of executive orders that reduce protections to environmental staples like removing animals from the “endangered” lists, protecting wildlife rich areas from pollution and easing restrictions on disposal of factory waste.

Through the use of a presidential power, the executive order, Mr. Bush also prevented a measure in California that would give the state government regulation over carbon dioxide emissions for automobiles.  

The proposed policy in California was thought to have been a significant step in the direction of reversing climate change, principally because several others states had pledged to adopt California’s rules.  The regulation the state sought would have effectively improved the fuel economy of automobiles to 36 miles per gallon within and eight year time period.

For his part, Mr. Obama has pledged to tackle the energy crisis in the United States that is assumed to be his second priority behind righting the economic crisis America has been enduring since the beginning of the summer of 2008.  The domestic investment will be $150 Billion dollars invested in clean energy sources (wind, solar, hydroelectric) and pledge that it will produce 5 million jobs.

Mr. Obama is receiving a lot of advice as he considers how to adopt policies that effectively reduce the dependence America has on foreign oil sources, a major theme of his presidential campaign.  Advisors to the president elect include notable environmental activists and former Vice President, Al Gore.

Mr. Gore campaigned for Mr. Obama during the end of his presidential run and shortly thereafter affirmed his believe that Mr. Obama’s policy toward the environment should be comprehensive.  Mr. Gore outlined five critical steps he feels the Obama administration should address in order to help advert the climate change problem globally, as well as address some of the energy concerns the United States faces.

As the newest “change” agent for the environment, Mr. Obama is tasked with developing policies that address his agenda, but are not so unpopular that they are not passed in the United States Congress.  Like Mr. Bush, America’s new president will take the liberty of using the power of executive orders to reverse some of the previous administration policies that Mr. Obama’s camp disagrees with and begin to carve out the new environmental scope for the West’s most industrialized nation.