Poor Barack Obama is really having a hard time: His allies on Capitol Hill can’t seem to get health care collectivized, “cap-and-trade” still hasn’t passed, and he couldn’t even bring home the Olympics. He probably can’t even kick the dog to relieve the tension without finding himself in violation of 12 D.C. ordinances and five UN resolutions. What is the poor Leader to do?

Well, there’s still one group of people he can kick around: federal employees.

While it’s fine for the president and first lady to busy themselves with jet-setting flights off to Copenhagen on separate planes, federal agencies have received their orders: Do as I say, not as I do, and cut your greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over ten years. (As an aside, in an age when it seems like everything is evaluated in terms of "indicators" and "indexes," when will we finally see a Presidential Greenhouse Gas Index? With the high-living, extravagant travel, and burgeoning staff growing from year to year, when will we finally see concrete numbers which tell us the shoe sizes of each president’s carbon footprint?)

Presidential desperation and hypocrisy aside, The New York Times reported on the latest round of ‘Hype and Change’:

President Barack Obama is putting the federal government on a greenhouse-gas diet.

In an executive order signed Monday, Obama directed all agencies to set the first-ever targets for reducing climate-altering pollution from government buildings, fleets and federal workers' commutes.

The agencies will have 90 days to tell the White House how much they plan to measure and reduce greenhouse gases from buildings and vehicles by 2020. Targets for employees' commutes and travel will be due June 2010.

''As the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,'' Obama said in a statement.

So now it would appear that that federal employees may expect to be told what kind of vehicle they can drive while commuting for their government job. Bicycles seem to be working just fine for such purposes in the People’s Republic of China.

Why stop at calculating savings on the daily commute? Using Obamalogic, federal agencies could accomplish even greater cuts in greenhouse gases by telling those same employees how much they can heat and cool their homes, the proper temperature setting for their water heaters, and the approved forms of recreation for their non-office hours and vacations. Individuals could be "incentivized" to fulfill quotas in reducing such gases. The possibilities are almost endless. Jimmy Carter’s gentle nudging over thirty years ago to "turn-down-the-thermostat-and-put-on-a-sweater" was pretty thin gruel by comparison to what Obama is serving up. You certainly can’t fire a man for marrying another man, but if he drives an SUV, well, that’s different: we have to have some standards, after all.

The New York Times article did reveal one fun factoid: “The government operates nearly 500,000 buildings, more than 600,000 cars and purchases more than $500 billion per year in goods and services.” Well, at the risk of stating the obvious: wouldn’t cutting back on the amount of government make the biggest difference? Maybe the government should try operating, let’s say, 250,000 buildings, 300,000 cars, and wean itself off spending so much of our money? That would eliminate a lot of greenhouse gases (a threat which presently falls somewhere between those posed by a killer comet and the Loch Ness monster) and would certainly allow a lot of overtaxed Americans to breathe easier.

Of course, cutting government wouldn’t be as "hip" with the environmentalist crowd, which understands that big government is necessary to beat the proles into compliance with their "save the Earth!" diktats. The Leader’s cut on government greenhouse gases is certainly “Change We Can Believe In” over at the Sierra Club. Again, according to the New York Times:

Dave Hamilton, director of global warming and energy programs for the Sierra Club, called the actions a blueprint for how the private sector can begin reducing greenhouse gases.

''This is about how organizations do business and how to incorporate lower emissions in the way they do business,'' Hamilton said.

Yeah, it’s amazing how a command from the top gets things done. But the government obviously doesn’t have to worry about profitability. At this point, America’s remaining industrialists can probably think of very little except profitability.

Rt. Rev. James Heiser has served as Pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Malone, Texas, while maintaining his responsibilities as publisher of Repristination Press, which he established in 1993 to publish academic and popular theological books to serve the Lutheran Church.  Heiser has also served since 2005 as the Dean of Missions for The Augustana Ministerium and in 2006 was called to serve as Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA). An advocate of manned space exploration, Heiser serves on the Steering Committee of the Mars Society. His publications include two books; The Office of the Ministry in N. Hunnius' Epitome Credendorum (1996) and A Shining City on a Higher Hill: Christianity and the Next New World (2006), as well as dozens of journal articles and book reviews.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (3)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

DDW said:

	This has to be The very WORST government this country has ever suffered under. I though Bush and his bunch was bad. They pale in comparison to this bunch. Shameful, shameful.
	report abuse vote down vote up

October 07, 2009
Votes: +3

Bonnie said:

More green ideas for the federal government Shut down 90% of the government offices. Ground Air Force One and Marine One. Ground Pelosi and her jet. No more Congressional junkets. No more "family vacations" by Obama. No overseas travel by administration officials. Government officials and members of Congress may only travel by bicycle, horseback, or on foot. This is to apply both to government and private trips. It includes their immediate families.

report abuse vote down vote up

October 08, 2009
Votes: +2

Roger Deevers said:

	... All government buildings should have the air conditioning turned off in the summer to make them heat sponges. Thermostats set to the lowest in winter will reduce their heat emission in the winter. Leading by example to combat global climate change.
	report abuse vote down vote up

October 08, 2009
Votes: +1