Obama on the Precipice: The Ten Worst Things He Could Do When He Takes Over

By Don Hazen and Jan Frel and Joshua Holland and Liliana Segura and Tara Lohan and Heather Gehlert, AlterNet. Posted January 17, 2009.

One of Obama's stated energy plans is to "develop and deploy clean coal technology." But "clean coal," Fred Pearce wrote for the Guardian, "is the most toxic phrase in the greenwash lexicon" and is "up there with the safe cigarette." In fact, "clean coal" is only a part of our vocabulary thanks to a $35 million advertising campaign. 

While the media is liable to fall prey to such dirty tricks, it is shocking that the president-elect has taken the bait. 

The basic idea behind "clean coal" is being able to capture carbon emissions after the coal is burned and then store them somewhere, probably underground. A commercial application of this does not exists and may not for quite some time, if the technology is ever able to be viable at all. 

But what is so shocking about the promotion of "clean coal" is that it only deals with part of coal's dirty legacy -- the burning. The other big part is extraction, and there is really no way to make blowing the tops off mountains and dumping the waste into valleys and streams a clean affair.

And after two recent spills of coal waste from Tennessee Valley Authority power plants, one of which that may go down as the largest man-made environmental disaster in our country's history, it's time to bury the "clean coal" idea once and for all and focus on truly clean forms of energy that will aid us in our fight against global warming. 

Mistake VII: Fail to End Torture and Return the Country to Its Founding Principles on Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Obama would be making a major error if he didn't bring the country back to basic principles when it comes to human rights and the rule of law, such as shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center, eliminate Bush's sham trials process for suspects in the war on terror, end the process of extraordinary renditions and remove all possibilities of torture.

The so-called war on terror ushered in a dark period in this country's history, one that codified indefinite detention and the endemic torture of prisoners across the globe. It would be enormously problematic for our own civil liberties and international human rights if Obama stopped short of ending these abuses and bringing those who perpetrated them to justice.

 For starters, this means closing Guantanamo quickly -- Obama has indicated he plans to shut it down, but that it could take time. Meanwhile, human rights advocates and attorneys argue that closing the prison camp is not that difficult: 500 prisoners have already been released, and the remaining 250 should be tried in federal courts or let go.

It is also critical that Obama make good on his pledge to dismantle the unconstitutional military commissions process -- and fast. It is inextricably linked to torture -- and while much has been made of the possibility of a 9/11-style truth commission to investigate the torture that took place under Bush, Obama should go further and heed the call to assign a special prosecutor to investigate and press charges against the White House's torture team, if warranted.

This is the number one issue being pushed on Obama's Change.gov site, reflecting widespread public demand for prosecuting war crimes from the Bush era. Obama has thus far shown reluctance to pursue prosecutions, saying he has too many problems to solve to embark on a campaign that would smack of a "partisan witch hunt."

"My general belief," Obama recently said, when pressed on the issue, "is that when it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past."

 But without accountability, there is no deterrence for future administrations. "People say that prosecuting torture is 'looking backward,' " Michael Ratner, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told AlterNet recently. "But in my view, prosecutions are looking forward -- looking forward so that this doesn't happen again."

Mistake VIII: Ignore the Emerging Water Crises 

Right now, 36 U.S. states are facing water scarcity in the next five years, and over the coming decades global warming will exacerbate our water woes. Gone are the days when just the desert Southwest was susceptible to periods of drought. Now, that region is predicted to hit what scientists are calling "permanent drying" as a result of climate change. And previously water-rich regions like the Southeast are seeing the bottoms of their reservoirs, and the massive groundwater supply under the Great Plains that serves our country's vast agriculture industry is being depleted 10 times faster than nature can replenish it. 

Even with these daunting problems, our water crisis is not just one of quantity; it is also one of quality and infrastructure. This crisis is putting ecosystems and people at risk, but help from the federal government is virtually nonexistent.

Over the last several decades, federal support for infrastructure has fallen greatly in an attempt to privatize the commons. And water has been no exception. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which the federal government is suppose to use to help states keep their water clean, has fallen nearly 70 percent since 1991.

Things are worse on other fronts, too. As a proportion of overall spending on wastewater infrastructure, federal dollars made up 78 percent of funding in 1978, but now makes up only 3 percent. 

See more stories tagged with: iraq, immigration, water, obama, health care, afghanistan, civil liberties, war on drugs, stimulus, mistakes

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet. Jan Frel, Senior Managing Editor; Heather Gehlert, Managing Editor; Josh Holland, senior writer; Tara Lohan, Envionment editor and Liliana Segura is Rights and Liberties Editor.

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