Republicans have criticized Obama for using executive authority to create national monuments, a cornerstone of his environmental legacy. He says it’s a hallowed site that deserves to be treated as such and will now be preserved for future generations.
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President Obama made his first-ever visit to Lake Tahoe on Wednesday to stress the importance of conservation efforts for the lake and the nation at large in the face of climate change. “Just as this space is sacred to native Americans it should be sacred to all Americans”. Wrapping up his speech, President Obama concluded: “The most important office in a democracy is the office of Citizen”. Today, the 3 million annual visitors to Tahoe’s casinos, ski resorts, campgrounds and marinas drive a $5 billion local economy that would be jeopardized if further loss of clarity turns the lake a murky green.
The president says the bipartisan cooperation that has attacked threats to the alpine lake’s famous clarity is evidence there’s “no contradiction between being smart on the environment and having a strong economy”.
California Governor Jerry Brown took the stage ahead of Obama’s keynote address and said the unprecedented steps taken to protect Lake Tahoe over the last 20 years prove that “beauty transcends politics”.
Numerous grants and programs announced by the White House to coincide with the president’s speech are to boost clean energy or improve conservation in the region surrounding the California lake or nearby states such as Nevada and Utah, which were awarded a $29 million grant to study geothermal energy.
Despite decades of work and millions of dollars in improvements, keeping Tahoe blue could soon be out of human hands.
Obama, who is racing to cement his legacy on climate change before his presidency ends on January 20, will showcase both progress and looming threats in stops at Lake Tahoe, Nevada; Honolulu; and an ocean refuge in the remote Midway Atoll. The Environmental Protection Agency is providing roughly $230,000 to manage and reduce the region’s storm-water runoff, and the Fish and Wildlife Service will provide almost $1 million for eight projects aimed at preventing the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels from nearby water bodies to Lake Tahoe.
President Obama called Lake Tahoe a pristine environment that must be protected.
“He has not backed off”, said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who is hosting the summit. This year’s summit was hosted by retiring Nevada Sen. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California were also in attendance.
Assistant Interior Secretary Janice Schneider, who preceded Obama in the program, said the money would come from the Southern Nevada Lands Management Act, a 1998 law that directs money from public land sales near Las Vegas to conservation and public land projects throughout Nevada.
Some of the issues affecting the lake are reduction in its clarity – largely as a result of rain runoff, warmer water temperature and invasive aquatic species.
Malmed, who is originally from France, said that it is good that people are listening to the facts about climate change. The lake’s temperature has risen faster over the past four years than any time on record.
Obama’s brief stop along the Nevada-California border came at the start of an 11-day global tour that will take the president to Asia for his final time as president.
In Nevada on Wednesday, Obama plans to visit Lake Tahoe and speak at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake’s preservation.
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To that end, Obama planned an unusual presidential visit Thursday to Midway Atoll, a speck of land halfway between Asia and North America where Obama recently expanded a marine monument. Many Republicans have argued that Obama’s climate-change policies – and those advocated by Clinton – are too expensive and unfairly burden business. He’ll meet with the country’s leaders and attend a pair of regional summits.
