Obama Nominates Superfund Polluter Lawyer To Run DOJ Environment Division
Obama Nominates Superfund Polluter Lawyer To Run DOJ Environment Division
GM cleanup of the Bedford Superfund site.
President Barack Obama has nominated a lawyer for the nation’s largest toxic polluters to run the enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws. On Tuesday, Obama “announced his intent to nominate” Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice. Moreno, general counsel for that department during the Clinton administration, is now the corporate environmental counsel for General Electric, “America’s #1 Superfund Polluter“:
Number five in the Fortune 500 with revenues of $89.3 billion and earnings of $8.2 billion in 1997, General Electric has been a leader in the effort to roll back the Superfund law and stave off any requirements for full cleanup and restoration of sites they helped create.
This February, General Electric lost an eight-year battle to “prove that parts of the Superfund law are unconstitutional.” One of the 600-person DOJ environmental division’s “primary responsibilities is to enforce federal civil and criminal environmental laws such as” the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Superfund.
Before General Electric, Moreno worked as a corporate attorney at Spriggs and Hollingsworth. Moreno’s name is found in the Westlaw database as an attorney defending General Motors in another Superfund case, the GM Powertrain facility in Bedford, Indiana:
Historical uses and management of PCB containing hydraulic oils and PCB impacted materials has contaminated on-site areas as well as the sediment and floodplain soil within Bailey’s Branch and the Pleasant Run Creek watershed.
Although General Motors entered into an agreement in 2001 with the EPA to clean up the site, a number of local residents whose land has been contaminated by polychorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have sued for damages in Allgood v. GM (now Barlow v. GM), in a contentious and caustic dispute over cleanup, monitoring, and lost property values.
During the Clinton administration, Moreno was involved in another controversial case, unsuccessfully defending the Secretary of Commerce’s decision to weaken the dolphin-safe tuna standard. In Brower v. Daley, Earth Island Institute, The Humane Society of the United States, and other individuals and organizations brought suit against the United States government for actions that were “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law,” winning their case in 2000.
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OK this is outrageous C’mon Obama. Just how much abuse are you expecting the liberals to put up with here?
May 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pmWTF???
May 15th, 2009 at 2:59 pmhow much is too much?
Putting Mareno in charge of enforcing enviromental laws is like having Pol Pot in charge of enforcing civil rights.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:00 pmMakes me wonder what the Republic Fascist Party of Pain will object to about this nominee.
Too liberal?
Too empathetic?
Too rich?
Answer: None of the above. They’ll state, ‘It’s about time the President nominated someone qualified for a position.
Mr. President, have you vetted Moreno’s taxes yet?
May 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pmIs this like “it takes a thief to catch a thief”? You gotta wonder WTF is going on with our Pres. Who is advising him?
May 15th, 2009 at 3:02 pmIs this kind of like hiring hackers to find the cracks in a company’s IT security?
May 15th, 2009 at 3:02 pm.
Nameplates, underwear, and the dog…
… “CHANGE” complete.
.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:04 pmUncle Ho,
May 15th, 2009 at 3:05 pmObama’s reserving Pol Pot for the TORTURE investigations.
Nice to see that Obama has mastered the late Friday afternoon “dump”.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:09 pmThis is not the man we elected. I want my vote back…
May 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pmWho is this president and what has he done with our candidate who we loved, believed in and worked our asses off getting him elected?
The several weeks have been very disappointing. I’m feeling disillusioned and it’s way too early in this administration for me to have so many doubts.
Kinda wishing Michelle would take over for a bit…
PEACE
May 15th, 2009 at 3:13 pmThis is exactly the man you elected. He telegraphed a lot about himself during the campaign cycle that Obama fans just refused to see. His FISA vote was the last straw for me personally, but it was just one straw of many.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:14 pmThe best we can hope for is that Moreno is like most lawyers I’ve met: he’s a whore for whoever he’s working for at the time. (My apologies to any whores I’ve offended). At least he knows the ins and outs of those trying to avoid compliance.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:14 pmMore corporafornication? Obama shows his true colors. Just wait for health care deform.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:16 pmLet’s see how this plays out. Sometimes the best prosecutors come from the ranks of the best defense lawyers.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:22 pmBut, there’s gonna be a lot of splainin to do if the EPA keeps shillin for the corporatists like it did under BushitCo.
Step right up~! Which troll will make the most inane comment on this thread!??
May 15th, 2009 at 3:22 pmActually, if you’ve read this site enough, you will know we are just as hard in voicing our displeasure when our side does something we don’t like. It’s different from the Republican world of not admitting a mistake or anything is their fault. Probably because we’re free thinkers and don’t have to wait for the talking points from HQ.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:22 pmOS – what does that stand for? Obnoxious Shit? Do you have anything constructive to add or are you just being an obnoxious shit today?
May 15th, 2009 at 3:28 pmOS must be very passionate about protecting the environment. Is that it OS?
May 15th, 2009 at 3:30 pmSounds like he may know his stuff.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:32 pmThis is ridiculous, I’m sorry but unless this guy shows up in a hemp suit complete with a vegan lunch, I am going to have a hard time believing anything he says…
Obama better not let me down with this one because I’ve already had more than my share of Summers and Geithner…
May 15th, 2009 at 3:33 pmSorry to say but it seems the President didn’t take a close enough look at WHY he had higher approval ratings a month or so ago than he does now.
Excuse me, Mr.President, but you might want to start wondering why the trend is slowly heading down.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:37 pmOS is a troll. He knows he is too stupid to actually enter the dialogue so he trolls. He is a moron
May 15th, 2009 at 3:39 pmBut hey….those leprechaun jokes were a scream during the campaign, right?
The only candidate who was willing to prosecute bush and cheney, end the war and declare real change, Kucinich, was derided and marginalized; led by the corporate-owned media and dems just ate it up.
Meanwhile, “Hope” covers bush’s crimes and genuflects before the corporate diktat.
Obama’s no “manchurian candidate,” just a garden-variety liar.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:41 pmSigh, I always vote Kucinich in the primaries, Hanshiro. Integrity doesn’t mean much in our politics.
And for all the trolls: most progressive people on here who very much knew Obama is not a savior, but pragmatically took more of an incrementalist approach. This is only another reason that we need to hold the President accountable, to let him know the left is watching, and if he wants our support after the first term, he needs to listen to those of us that are for real change.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:47 pmThis is what George W. Bush would do.
This is what I would have expected Obama to NOT do–or to REVERSE as a choice.
This is NOT what I expected when I voted for Obama–to pick the same f**king guy George W. Bush would have picked for this job.
Pardon me while I go throw up now.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:55 pmI welcome TP’s coverage of this if Obama does end up nominating her. If she is currently helping GE defend its polluting then she should be vigorously opposed. PCBs are no small thing and, I’m not even convinced that this dredging that they’ve finally begun in the Hudson River is a good thing.
PCBs are carcinogens, they’re heavy (so are tend to lay on the bottom) and they last for ages. I can’t help but wonder if this dredging is just going to stir it all up. But that’s another story.
GE claimed that what they did was okay because before PCBs were banned. Just because they weren’t banned yet doesn’t make it okay!
May 15th, 2009 at 3:57 pmI sincerely hope that it’s not being argued that Obama has had the critical eye of the Left on him at every turn…
This site, C&L, Huff Po, etc. all had their fair share of ditto-heads for Obama during the campaign cycle. As I said before, his FISA vote is the straw broke the camel’s back for me, and even that decision was defended by a group of people calling themselves progressive.
Obviously we have a lot of independent thinkers on our side who haven’t just swallowed whole BO’s line, but it’d be foolish to assert that no one on the Left did.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:58 pmEugeneDebs Says:
OK this is outrageous C’mon Obama. Just how much abuse are you expecting the liberals to put up with here?
May 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
His cynical reply: “Who ya gonna call? The GOPukes? Yeah, right…”
This is pay-off to the oil guys, a way of saying “Hey, I gotta make it look like we mean business on this environmental crap, but I got your backs, don’t worry…”
May 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pmOS Says:
Step right up…who will be the first progressive to apologize for obama?
Me! Me! I been practicing on my GOPuke non-apology apology. Here ya go:
I apologize if Obama is harshing your mindless litte brain…
How’s that? Down-right Republican, doncha think?
May 15th, 2009 at 4:03 pm“Meet the new boss”…….
May 15th, 2009 at 4:08 pm………
I’ve read some of these comments here and I want to say that I far prefer Obama’s team of rivals to McCain’s team of overpaid corporate lobbyists had (thank God he didn’t) he won. Besides, this guy hasn’t even been appointed yet, there’s still time to write to the White House and voice our doubts over this decision.
May 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pmWow!!!! So much “CHANGE”…
May 15th, 2009 at 4:31 pmGeez, thinkprogress has gotta stop attracting trolls.
May 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pmagreed, KB. I think the demoralizing effect of the previous 8 years coupled with the recession really did give a kind of desperate hope for the President, including many on the left. There’s always been the argument of incrementalism or just aggressive rapid change, but I do think the level of resentment will rise as we see that maybe we have emotionally and intellectually put too much faith on the Obama administration. But no one wanted to see McCain be exponentially worse, right?
May 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pmYES WE CAN…DOESNT MEAN WE WILL!
May 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pmWe really need to test the White House water supply. Check for traces of koolaid.
May 15th, 2009 at 4:43 pmProudMoron a truly pathetic brainwashed cretin. You win the prize for being SO stupid and SO brainwashed you were the first to regurgitate the stupidity you were programmed with. How can you live with yourself? Dont you just get up in the morning and cry at how stupid and pathetic you are? Shouldnt you just kill yourself? I mean you are far too stupid to do anything else worthwhile for humanity so do the right thing and go kill yourself. You are a troll. You are such a punk you think it clever to annoy people. You DEFINE worthless. Do the only good thing you are capable of and go kill yourself
May 15th, 2009 at 4:54 pmThe entire Global Community was traumatized by Monsters Bush/Cheney. Candidate Obama had a keen understanding of this. That’s why he went to Europe during his presidential campaign – to show the World that “he gets it”.
May 15th, 2009 at 4:59 pmThe trauma suffered by Americans, made us more vulnerable to develop “selective hearing”.
President Obama has a stronger obligation with liberals/progressives/independents. We were the ones who put him in office. He’ll do well if he does not forget that.
Obviously STUPID. Does it bother you that you are so stupid and pathetic? How do you live with yourself KNOWING that you are so stupid you cant even HOPE to contribute to a conversation so you just come here to annoy us? How does it feel to know that you are too stupid and pathetic to even pull THAT off. Clever needs higher brain function and the Sun will never rise onto the day someone as blatantly, staggeringly stupid as you will be capable of that. You are sad and pathetic.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:28 pmSadly, it seems that we are following the same path other countries…a very popular leader gets elected by people working for a progressive agenda and then the script gets changed once he gets in office…by the corporatists.
There are enough of them in this administration. The corporatist takeover of our country is why there is no single payer advocate with a seat at the table even though 59% of Americans want single payer.
It’s most likely why he is leaning toward Repukes re: social security.
It’s sad.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:34 pmI don’t think it’s anything to worry about.
This woman knows the real facts.
She’ll be tough as hell on polluters and they know it.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:34 pmWho will the socialst democrat party run for pres in 2012, because I think Obama will be on the GOP ticket.
Can’t you get your GOP talking points straight, Proud? It’s Democrat Socialist Party…geez…I understand you rely solely on GOP talking points and Rush’s pontificating but I did not expect you would mix them up…
May 15th, 2009 at 5:40 pmBarack Obama pulled one over on us!
This looks nothing like what we were promised last year!
May 15th, 2009 at 5:41 pmOS Says:
Next obama will appoint a gitmo detainee to Homeland Security…LOL!
Unlike you in the boot-licking Bush-worshipping cult of personality, we knew what we got when we elected Obama…We are not afraid to criticize him, unlike you with Bush until his numbers got even too low for wingnuts to swallow. Even then there are those who still cling on to the delusion that he actually did a good job…so before mocking us for Obama, perhaps you should actually look at yourselves in the mirror and reflect on how you cheered on Bush while he destroyed our country…
May 15th, 2009 at 5:43 pmI don’t think that’s the case…I think he got one pulled over on him…and the majority of people don’t get that part of it.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:44 pmIt’s Friday, and Obnoxiously Stupid gets out of Kindergarten (11th year and he might just pass this time)early.
May 15th, 2009 at 5:45 pmSo a super polluter attorney in charge of environment. Non-disclosure of our torture policies. Detainees held indefinitely without trials. No accountability. Haven’t we all heard this somewhere before? I guess the honeymoon is over. Meet the new boss..same as the old boss. (Well.. not quite yet.)
May 15th, 2009 at 5:46 pmIs it just possible that Obama nominated this man because of his links to these polluters? He knows where the bodies are buried, the arguments the polluters use, the tactics taken by their legal teams to abuse the legal system to the detriment of the environment.
I’m not sure that being a member of a state (or DC) bar is a requirement for this position (you don’t have to be a lawyer to be on the Supreme Court, after all.) He may very well be putting his license in jeopardy to take this position.
May 15th, 2009 at 6:11 pmI’m as puzzled and tired as y’all are, and worked really hard, and gave a chunk of money the past several years, going without vacations, clothes, etc- as many of you did to get Dems elected with the rigged votes and crooked Repugs. (still forking out for Franken) It’s possible that:
May 15th, 2009 at 7:28 pmhis hands are tied and somebody else runs the country (as “insurance co’s ‘own’ the senate” or
he doesn’t want another term or
he was totally dishonest through his campaign or
this person actually disliked GE
Soon I will be seeking refugee status in some country that’s not as poor as we’ve become.
Look…Lawyers are whores. They represent, tooth and nail, the interests of those who hire them.
This is supposed to be a virtue of our judicial system.
The fact that someone as well versed in all of this crap, shoulder-deep in it, is being tapped to now run the other side…It perhaps is one of the most common-sense appointments one could imagine. I can’t pretend to know much about the person in the specific…but yes, the analogies of hiring a hacker to show how you can be hacked…How exactly is such a common-sense approach equal to some betrayal of values? That just doesn’t follow. Lawyers have no values, other than doing everything they can to win for their client.
If this appt. is going to apply that basic lawyer’s credo to the new position, then rock on. We’ll see how good a lawyer he is. I’m guessing, based on the obvious criticism the pick would draw, that he’s probably pretty damn good.
All of this, “See, Obama’s not what you thought he was” is so juvenile as to really be beyond belief. The naivete on display is staggering, and yet it huffs and puffs behind this vellum-like “wall” of purity and principle.
Please…Grow. The. Frack. Up.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:32 pmAnd I should also say…All this huffing and puffing about how Obama is supposed to unravel/undo, whatever, all the stuff the Bushies implemented in their war on terror.
You have to remember, that at a very basic level, the idea of turning previous heads of state into “war criminals” just ain’t going to be high on the list of any incoming chief executive. There are so many ramifications beyond the “The truth will set you free” pipe dream.
These arguments are never about what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”. They’re about seeing elected US officials arrested overseas and charged and put on trial for war crimes. Yeah, the BushCo. went out of bounds. But they’re no worse than any Israeli of the last 30 years, and you don’t see them rushing to put their leaders on trial in the Hague.
Sometimes there’s a bigger picture. The world is ugly, it’s full of ugly people with ugly motives. You know this from your daily lives.
What sort of altruistic alternative universe do you people pretend to inhabit? I know it strokes everyone’s egos, but really, take a look around you.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:53 pmI’m glad he’s not my Messiah. Is this the first time you people voted? You got what you voted for, he is just a man. Just another lying politician with his own agenda not ours.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:01 pmWas there any presentation by Obama of this new DOJ environmental division head? How did he qualify the guy? This looks like Bush appointing John Bolton to the U.N. Sorry to say so early but I am suspicious of Obama’s choices.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:34 pmFrom The Time 100, “The Kennedys”:
I’ve got BIG problems with Obama on the torture photos and lots else, but in this case I’m with therealkahoutec. Give Obama a break until we see what this guy Moreno does, and judge him by results.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:52 pmChill, people! This is a lawyer. They argue the side they are hired to argue and can argue the other side just as well. The polluters pay more so they often steal the best lawyers from govt. To get him back on our side is actually genius on Obama’s part. Moreno must be good for GE to hire him as their top Superfund fighting guy when they have a lot at stake. Now we get the best of the best and GE loses the best of the best. We win twice!
May 15th, 2009 at 9:08 pmWell as a newly registered Independant and a former left wing liberal I gave up the day day the Super Delegate of Arkansas was executed before the Democratic Convention…a long time Clinton supporter and his assassin was immediately shot dead. Too much of a coincidence for me. After all Arkansas is at the beginning of the roll call, might have given some other Delegates some ideas….I got pretty early this “Messiah” maybe was not who we thought he was. I saw a list of over 100 lies he’s been caught in. Good Luck Hoping….I think they’ll be a revoultion to help “change” the revolution…That’s what the Tea Parties are really about…They are the beginning of people who are really going to create “Change” and believe me having been to the one in NY….There were as many Liberals as there were Conservatives…MSNBC is owned by GE…GE just got a whole bunch of Global contracts from Obmaa and gang. ‘A Government large enough to supply everything you need you have a gov’t that is large enough to take everything you have” Thomas Jefferson. Everyone seems to be alowly waking up. “You speak with forked tongue Cimosabe” Tonto…..Guess he was psychic
May 15th, 2009 at 9:20 pmsimply, no. I have also commented on Obama’s website. This sounds too much like a Bush move. NO!
May 15th, 2009 at 9:44 pmTo stormflugan: Are you suggesting that the worst case, the GOP, come back to power? They screwed us up big time. But, I think we should hold Obama’s feet to the flame and make him do right by this poor abused country, for once.
Still, he is a pol and I hold little hope in those
May 15th, 2009 at 9:47 pmi hope this is the joe kennedy obama has been looking for remember pres roosevelt hire JFKs dad to run the SEC people said back then it was like hiring a fox to look after the chickens
May 15th, 2009 at 10:48 pmIs Obama planning on running again in 2012 or what!!?
May 15th, 2009 at 10:58 pmIs Obama morphing into Bush? Are we REALLY getting 4 more years of Bush & Cheney? When Obama said his motto was “Change”, I didn’t know he meant he would change his mind endless times on the same subject. I am getting concerned…and worried that we are not getting the President we voted for….
May 15th, 2009 at 11:02 pmObama is owned by the same corporate powers who own us. I guess we all need to give up now. I would not be surprised.
Can’t wait for the next Alito for SCOTUS.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:21 pmPerplexing to say the least and while some defend him as being pragmatic as opposed to ideological, I see neither. A pragmatic leader who was elected on the progressive agenda that he campaigned for with a large Democrat majority in the Congress would have been well on the way to pushing a domestic and foreign policy that was 180 degrees apart from his predecessor. Instead, he’s well on the way to to morphing into a horrifying composite of Reagan, Clinton and Bush. At the best, we can hope that it’s a temporary lack of confidence and/or experience as he’s faced with a cacophony of competing political interests. At the worst, he’s a manipulative political operative who lied through his teeth to get the ultimate power prize. Let’s hope it’s not the latter, but somebody has got to wake him up and get him to toss out the Bush template that he’s trying to operate from.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:27 pmwho better to enforce the law than someone who has been trying to exploit loopholes and knows the tactics for avoiding enforcement?
May 15th, 2009 at 11:44 pmYou know, I’m not that worried about it. Like harnlaw wrote above, who better to enforce these laws than someone who understands the enemy. Further, lawyers aren’t guided by principle, especially lawyers at this level of play. They’re guided by success.
That said, I have some concern wondering how much money he is giving up for this, why he deems that valuable, and what long term effect this will have on environmental protection once he learns the working inside the agency. But he probably already has a very good idea of how the agency works. And his motives may be altruistic (hell, you never know).
May 15th, 2009 at 11:49 pmLike geithner and summers are doing such a wonderful job working with the banks because they were insiders also?
May 15th, 2009 at 11:51 pmThere are two things I find troubling in most of the above comments. First, that so many are quick to write off Obama. My god, did he get a short honeymoon. It’s like after Bush43 made us value vigilance and skepticism, we’ve moved to distrust and doubt as the default setting. Let it go. Obama is not Bush, he wants to do good things, but it doesn’t happen in a matter of weeks or months. He hasn’t stopped global warming? He hasn’t revived the economy? He hasn’t solved Iraq? Do you think he has a magic wand sticking out his arse? You CAN’T pull a 180, it doesn’t work. He stuck with TARP et al. because they were already in place. He has ended some of our more dead-end policies (torture, non-funding of stem cell research, etc.), but steps to limit the authority that brought those about have wider-ranging consequences than the individual policies. He’s shifting the directions and curbing the problems. Elect Harry Potter if you want magic.
May 16th, 2009 at 12:06 amSecond, the lawyer isn’t an ideologue: he follows the paycheck. When GE signed the paycheck, he did GE’s bidding. But now he gets to bring what he knows of how the “bad guys” operate and reason to the other side of it.
Settle down, have some faith in Obama. We’ve got him for four years, so you may want to hold off on the ulcers you’re developing over every little thing he does. Elections are how and when we pass judgement, so hunker down and get to the work of helping the country through a brutal recession. Keep tabs and have your say at the polls in two years.
I believe that this was a strategic move because at least the Obama Administration will know who to go after first for breaking environmental laws.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:09 amWait until you see the tough choices we’ll have to make concerning Social Security and Medicare. I guarantee the rich and corporate America won’t be making any sacrifices. I think maybe Obama fell asleep near one of those body snatching pods. Without a decent public health insurance plan, Obama will be a one term wonder. After all the corporate welfare, he has the gall to tell us that we cannot afford a single pay system. Right now he’s providing “shock and awe” for his supporters.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:33 amThe grassroots will wither and die and change will fail. Voters are unforgiving when expectations are raised to such heights and then dashed. Obama bettr shape up soon or his movement is over and my hope will be gone.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:44 amSay it ain’t so, BO.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:51 amI remember someone writing about one of Obama’s political rules: Hold your friends close, but hold your enemies closer. Obama may be practicing what he preaches, but he may also be making a Faustian bargain in the process.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:52 amThis guy will know the tricks. If he doesn’t perform he can always be thrown out!!!! I think it’s a GREAT PICK.
May 16th, 2009 at 2:47 amWho better to undo what’s already been done than someone who helped do it. The guy is a lawyer whose client is now the the American people.
May 16th, 2009 at 3:30 amI’ll have to agree with the last two posters.
May 16th, 2009 at 5:51 amAfter all, he’s a corporate lawyer…
they’re not interested in principles, only paychecks.
A couple of notes…Barack never purported to be left wing; his guiding light was always pragmatism, and what would be workable for most of the country. A whole lot of folks looked at his colour and decided he was a lefty; he never was.
Additionally, despite the madness of the Bush years, we need to learn to trust him. I did not vote for him because I assumed I would always agree with him. I voted for him because I know he had the intellect, empathy and BALANCE to weigh up all the possible choices (often with reference to information to which I don’t have access) and make a reasoned decision.
For example with Gitmo. Of course there are innocent people in there, whose civil liberties have been violated…but let’s grow up, even if they weren’t terrorists when they went in, they sure as hell are now ! This mess, not of Barack’s making, has to be untangled responsibly so that our country is not endangered. Also it is naive to believe that lawyers fight for only what they believe in…that is not the nature of the beast. I cannot believe that our President would have made such a glaring choice if he didn’t have a good reason; like maybe the fact that this man will have the ability to know all the underhand things which will be tried by the opposition.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:02 amWe all need to take a deep breath and remember that a grown-up is in charge…and while it behooves us to be vigilant and analytical, we need to remember that Obama was never a yes man….and also cast our minds back to the true disasters of the last eight years. Tolerance is not about allways getting our own way, it is about entertaining and seriously considering other people’s views.
Peace !
With each step it is becoming clearer and clearer that Obama is quite ordinary and conventional. “Change we an believe in” was simply a political ploy to get elected.
If you want transformation, get active locally. Take action yourself. You have to lead Obama, don’t wait for him to lead you.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:27 amObama has been consistent in promoting and defending the interests of the corporate ruling class. He is an imperialist and a corporatist continuing the policies of previous administrations including foreign aggression, torture and human rights abuse, corporate welfare and a stronger domestic police state. Where’s the “change?”
May 16th, 2009 at 8:51 amIt would appear the the president is reneging on another of his campaign promises. He is showing the same attitude towards the environment that was displayed by the bush/cheney regime. His appointment of Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary has led to a policy that allows for the killing of two-thirds of the wolves in the Northern Rockies and now this appointment of a fox to guard the hen house. I suppose it should have been evident when he took a stand for “clean coal” during the campaign. He is bowing down to big business just as so many of his republican predecessors did. The president is not the friend of the environment we thought. He can pass all the health care in the world, but that will not overcome the additional illness cause by polluters.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:29 amI think it’s time for all of us to head over to WhiteHouse.gov and lodge our complaints there, where they MIGHT do some good. This is an outrage. I worked my butt off to get this man elected and we might as well have John McCain if this is the result. So much for keeping people involved and doing what the people want!
May 16th, 2009 at 10:03 amA litle perspective from a liberal environmental lawyer who has been bitterly disappointed with Obama’s betrayals on civil liberties:
This pick doesn’t trouble me in the least, because of the way Superfund works. Superfund, passed in 1980, imposes retroactive liability upon companies and their corporate successors for acts of contamination that occurred prior to passage of the law, in some cases 100 years ago. Basically, hazardous waste disposal was unregulated or lightly regulated prior to 1976, when the companion federal law, the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, was enacted.
That means that most Superfund sites were created many years ago as a result of the customary waste disposal habits of all of industry and households. About twenty percent of the sites on the Superfund list are, in fact, landfills to which everyone’s industrial and household wastes were sent at the time. If those sites need to be cleaned up today because everyone was dumb back then, well, fine. But being identified as a potentially responsible party at a large number of sites doesn’t really mean one is an evil polluter. To a large degree, it’s merely a reflection of the age or size of a company, and the number of corporate acqusitions it has engaged in over the years. Indeed, the United States government probably deserves the title of world’s biggest polluter, because of DOD and DOE sites. G.E. is on a lot of Superfund lists because it is an old and big company that inherited a lot of Superfund liability, not because it is doing any intentional polluting today. Most Superfund sites are just fights about how cleanup costs get distributed among a roomful of large companies.
Finally, G.E.’s attack on parts of the law itself have been directed at a legal provision that EPA sometimes invokes unfairly and/or to shield its fellow federal agencies from liability. To make a long story short, EPA has authority to order cleanups. Those who contest such orders risk daily penalties and treble damages if they refuse. There’s no pre-enforcement judicial review, so the due process rights are limited. Further, EPA sometimes issues these orders at sites where the government itself is a lage contributor, and the orders don’t go to the federal agency polluter. That’s the unfairness G.E. has complained about, and rightly so.
Sorry for the long post and the legalese, but it helps for context.
On the other hand, Obama deserves to be lambasted mecilessly for his reversals on military tribunals, the state secrets privilege, and a whole host of civil liberties affronts that have been best chronicled by Glenn Greenwald and Scott Horton.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:04 amObama is an extension of the Bush’s administration , which only change Obama brings is the change in the democrat policy to the policy of the republican..
Obama looks worst then a democrat blue dog republican. He certainly talks like a blue dogs which follows Bush’s policies to the letter..
Obama has no intention of stopping the oil war in Iraq, renegotiating the free trade bill which is used to outsource American jobs, or lifting his finger to help American’s jobs , freedom or restoring their democracy , constitution , laws and putting “American workers” back on their feet..
Obama gave the auto dealers our tax money then told the auto dealer to partner up with fiat which will destroy our Unions.
Fiat (buys??) out Chrysler , “”without”" putting up any cash… Of course they use no cash Obama has used our tax money to pay for this..
Not to say the protection against prosecuting that Obama is given Bush and his criminal administration for their crimes and destruction to our country, while using their same criminal practices..
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/20/automobiles-fiat-chrysler-biz-cz_jm_0120fiat.html
May 16th, 2009 at 10:09 amThis is one nominee I do hope the entire Democrat caucus filibusters.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:09 amRemember, the President is a very smart lawyer. If your going to put somebody in the position of taking on very large corporations that flaunt environmental law, you want somebody that has seen their playbook. He has essentially recruited a star quarterback from an opposing team. This is a very smart move provided that she is ethically committed to the Obama team.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:11 amOBAMA IS THE BIGGEST MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:00 amWHAT A FRAUD.
THIS IS SO STUPID IT MAKES ME SICK.
Stock up Americans there will be noe food or water or police soon.
The Banks have raped the world and are going to watch it die while they wait it out in their palacial bunkers.
Why do you thing Bill Gates has a seed vault?????
Chuckles, “I’m amazed how many of you miss the idea behind this one, and its a very interesting idea. Remember this guy isn’t a polluter, his job is to get polluters off. Why is that important? Because the only way to do that is to become very, very familiar with the environmental laws, since you’re bad to look for every flaw, loophole and mistake in it. Someone like that if they don’t sell out to their old friends could be very helpful, both in revealing over looked mistakes and fixing them, and in knowing how to counter anyone trying to get out of their obligations under the law.
Still, i must admit i’m not so sure this idea will work, but its much like Obama’s choices from campaign until now, and the reason i voted for him, he’s willing to try anything… although whether that’s good or not is still up in the air.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:06 amI’m almost at the point of being ashamed that I voted for this guy. If he wanted someone who would work for the environment and who also knows his way around the law, Obama could have picked someone like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. instead of this…suit Moreno.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:31 amI’m not sure if the fact that Moreno seems to always lose is s good or bad thing.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:44 amSo Obama is nominating a lawyer for polluters to protect the environment against polluters.
Obama was completely for gay rights except for gay marriage when he wanted our votes. Now he won’t even sign an executive order suspending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and his staff stripped a lot of support statements for gay rights from the White House website until bloggers caught them.
Obama was in favor of releasing military abuse photos but now he is against that. He was against military tribunals for detainees but now he is for that.
Obama was in favor of restoring federal funding for stem cell research, but now there are reports that his funding may in some cases be even more restrictive than Bush was.
He has given billions upon billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to the same corrupt CEOs and bankers which sunk our economy, allowing them to get big bonuses and throw extravagant parties until that came under the light of day.
So how is Barack Obama any different than a Republican?
May 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pmAs a conservative, I think this is great news. There are all ready too many environmental laws out there that drive down our industry by enforcing clean air/water standards that are excessive. These costs are passed on to industry.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:01 pmThis may be a very smart move on the Presidents part. Who better understands the tactics of the big polluters from a legal standpoint. If he goes after them it will be a win for Obama if not it will spell trouble from environmentalist.
May 16th, 2009 at 3:19 pmHey aminum, tell me: what do conservatives conserve?
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Anyone feeling triangulated here?
May 16th, 2009 at 4:26 pmYou folks who voted for this president are getting EXACTLY what you paid for.
Remember, collectively Americans get the government they deserve (or allow)!
May 16th, 2009 at 5:36 pmYou all seem to be missing the key word here… G.E., General Electric, General Electric is the owner of “MSNBC” and “NBC”… the same news agency that gets “tingles up their legs when they see Obama”. General electric is in line to get contract for the “Electronic Medical Records” for Obama’s Health Care Plan. General Electric is also suppose to get the contract for his “Green Enviromental Plan”…Solar Panels,windmills…..Probably Worth Billions to them Right? Me thinks the favorable news reporting from MSNBC AND NBC WILL NEVER END NOW!!!!
May 16th, 2009 at 9:55 pmNow is the time to put pen to paper and contact Judiciary Committee members.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:24 pmMoreno the lawyer may have the dirt and playbook on GE and others but he can’t use this confidental information against his x clients.
May 17th, 2009 at 12:17 amGee Barak, Couldn’t you find ANYONE else to do the job??
May 18th, 2009 at 12:36 amAre you people all nuts. She is Lawyer…she is hired to defend people. Yes she chose to work for GE how is that worse than a criminal defense attorney defendning a mass murderer. So now we have the best best and brightest, who knows the inner workings of the “worste polluter” on the face of the planet working for us. Do you really think she is going to stand up there, rasie her right hand, swear an oath and then secretely advocate for GE?! I applaud the president for choosing some one with years expierence, (dating back to the clinton adminstration)for this job. “Like hiring Pol Pot to do a tourcher investigation” ?! WTF? GE polluting wasn’t her idea, she was hired to guid them through the litigation.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:12 am