When it Comes to Protecting Forests Reelection Takes Precedence for Obama Administration

Tongass National Forest

The Obama administration as well as most pundits agree that if the economic situation in this country does not improve or God forbid gets worse the chances of President Obama being re-elected are slim to severely weakened.  Some observers questioned the administration's generous bailout to the banks as appeasing the financial power brokers in this country in order to maintain the status quo and not upset the economy further.

Now we have another "red flag" in the question of whether the Obama administration will do what's best for the country versus what is best for their political fortunes and it involves a critical issue in environmental circles.  The Obama administration this week approved the sale of timber in a roadless national forest in Alaska, the Tongass National Forest. 

During Bill Clinton's administration the U.S. Department of Agriculture created the roadless rule to establish prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting in inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands. The intent of the rule was to provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System.

Meanwhile, during the Presidential campaign Barack Obama stated that he supported the roadless rule.  Not only did he go back on this "campaign promise".  What is equally troubling is that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack went out of his way to say that this project is not being approved because it was already in the works before the new administration, say he "recognized how much people in the area needed the jobs and the economic boost."

Apparently the litmus test for environmental protection is economic prosperity.  According to Tom Waldo of Earthjustice, "just building the road will cost four times as much revenue as the Forest Service is going to get from the timber sale".  So basically we are subsidizing jobs at the expense of our national forests. 

Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth.  We have touted many of the accomplishments of the Obama environmental policy thus far but this policy makes you think maybe those were just further attempts to boost the economy (and approval ratings).  Where the rubber meets the road here is the pecking order:

1.  Re-election
2.  Environment