Should President Barack Obama have consulted with Gov. Bill Walker and Alaska\u2019s congressional delegation before establishing an Arctic agreement with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? Absolutely. But even though the criticism leveled against the president is well justified, I think Walker is the only one who was really slighted.<\/p>\n
Obama and Trudeau are using the historic Paris agreement as a springboard \u201cto combat climate change and anchor economic growth in clean development.\u201d They\u2019ve pledged to develop low greenhouse gas emission strategies; reduce methane emissions at oil and gas sites; and endorse the World Bank\u2019s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 Initiative.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to the agreement, but it\u2019s not loaded with any new or radical ideas. For instance, the goal of halting gas flaring associated with oil production has been on the World Bank\u2019s agenda for 15 years. BP endorsed the Zero Routine Flaring initiative when it was launched last April. Shell and eight other major oil companies have signed on as well.<\/p>\n
Of course, oil development is crucial to our state economy. That\u2019s why Alaska\u2019s political leaders have a vested interest in these issues. So why would Obama keep them in the dark?<\/p>\n
One reason may be that last November Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan voted to block the new power plant emission regulations which are a major part of his climate change agenda. And Sullivan remains skeptical that human activity is contributing factor to climate change.<\/p>\n
But Obama\u2019s reasoning may have more to do with what\u2019s happened since Mitch McConnell said his main goal as Senate Minority Leader was to ensure he was a one-term president. \u201cIf (Obama) was for it, we had to be against it\u201d is how former Republican Sen. George Voinovich described that Republican obstructionist philosophy.<\/p>\n
The current Supreme Court vacancy is a perfect example. Almost immediately after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Senate Republicans made it clear they had no intention of letting Obama appoint his replacement.<\/p>\n
This week the president nominated Merrick Garland, chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit who is widely considered a centrist. Six years ago Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, referred to him as \u201ca consensus nominee.\u201d He says he still thinks highly of Garland but now he\u2019s steadfastly opposed to holding confirmation hearings until after the election.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the position Murkowski initially took. \u201cI do believe that the nominee should get a hearing,\u201d she had said. But she quickly backpedaled. \u201cAny nominee is likely to become a political football in the midst of this already contentious and divisive campaign season,\u201d she now argues in concert with Hatch and the majority of their party.<\/p>\n
Another example is the nuclear agreement with Iran. It got through the Senate only because Democrats blocked a vote which would have disapproved it. And earlier 47 Republican Senators (excluding Murkowski) wrongly interfered with the negotiations by sending a letter directly to Iran\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the 2017 budget proposal Obama submitted to Congress. House Speaker Paul Ryan broke with all traditions by declaring it dead on arrival. The chairmen of the Senate and House budget committees even refused to invite Office of Management and Budget director Shaun Donovan to testify.<\/p>\n
The list goes on. So it really shouldn\u2019t surprise any Republican lawmaker when Obama bypasses them.<\/p>\n
But if both sides are trading punches seven years after the fight broke out, why should it matter who created the divisive atmosphere? Someone needs to model better leadership. That\u2019s why I think Obama should have brought in Alaska\u2019s elected officials before making this agreement. Instead, he\u2019s just given his opponents more ammunition.<\/p>\n
And I can\u2019t find any excuse at all for why Gov. Walker was excluded from the discussions. He\u2019s never been part of the loosely principled opposition Obama has faced in Congress.<\/p>\n
Walker was a Republican once. But now he\u2019s an independent who staffed his cabinet with people of all political persuasions. Indeed, his decision to withdraw his party membership 18 months ago now seems presciently wise.<\/p>\n
But mostly, in his brief tenure as governor, Walker hasn\u2019t contributed to the political rancor that\u2019s tearing the country apart. And for that reason he deserves even more respect from Obama.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean the terms of the agreement need to change. If anything I\u2019d like to see it strengthened. But ultimately it\u2019ll need to be seen through by Obama\u2019s successor. And in that regard our two senators should be satisfied with the same wait-and-see approach they\u2019re using to deny Obama his pick for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Should President Barack Obama have consulted with Gov. Bill Walker and Alaska\u2019s congressional delegation before establishing an Arctic agreement with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? Absolutely. But even though the criticism leveled against the president is well justified, I think Walker is the only one who was really slighted. Obama and Trudeau are using the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22328"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}