Obama’s Top Science Advisor: Keep-it-in-the-Ground Movement “Unrealistic”

by Jake Green, Energy in Depth

Obama’s top science advisor, John Holdren, rejected the “Keep-It-In-The-Ground” movement’s ideology, calling it “unrealistic” in his opening statements at the Energy Information Administration’s annual conference Monday. As Holdren put it,
“The notion that we’re going to keep it all in the ground is unrealistic…We are still a very heavily fossil-fuel dependent world.”
Holdren also declared his support for natural gas and the role it plays in cutting greenhouse gas emissions:
“I subscribe to the view that natural gas is a very helpful bridge fuel to a much lower emissions future.”
Holdren isn’t the first Obama official to rebuke these activists. US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has struck a similar tone on the topic:
“We are a nation that continues to be dependent on fossil fuels… It oversimplifies a very complex situation to suggest that one could simply cut off leasing or drilling on public lands and solve the issue of climate change.  You can’t just cut it off over night and expect to have an economy that is in fact the leader of the world.”
Former White House advisor John Podesta has also erred on the side of pragmatism, criticizing activists as “completely impractical”:
“If you oppose all fossil fuels and you want to turn that switch off tomorrow, that is a completely impractical way of moving toward a clean-energy future. With all due respect to my friends in the environmental community, if they expect us to turn off the lights and go home, that’s sort of an impractical suggestion.”
Unfortunately for anti-fracking activists, the list doesn’t end there.
California-Berkeley physics professor and climate scientists Dr. Richard Muller said:  “Environmentalists who oppose the development of shale gas and fracking are making a tragic mistake.”
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy noted: “Responsible development of natural gas is an important part of our work to curb climate change and support a robust clean energy market at home.”
President Obama’s former climate czar Carol Browner said “there are a lot of reasons” to support natural gas as a path to a clean energy future.
With so much criticism directed at them from Obama administration officials and the Democratic Party, it’s no wonder that “Keep-It-In-The Ground” activists have been resorting to increasingly desperate tactics to gain attention. But Holdren put it well today: just about every thinks what they want is completely “unrealistic.”
Copyright Energy in Depth. Reprinted with permission. Original article here:  http://energyindepth.org/national/obamas-top-science-advisor-keep-it-in-the-ground-movement-unrealistic/

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