Giving Gas a Pass

I’m glad Obama gave a speech about climate change, but his ringing endorsement of natural gas development was disturbing. While a good portion of the speech was devoted to praising and defending natural gas, not once did he use the word “fracking.” He allowed that “sometimes there are disputes about natural gas” and said something about “modernizing” the infrastructure, but unless he has some radical new technology up his sleeve, this was a pro-fracking speech. Perhaps he hasn’t seen the devastating documentary “Gasland” yet. Having just watched it myself a few days before the speech, I’m having trouble squaring his statement “I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing” with the irreparable mess being made right now.