The two items President Obama has used most in the last eight years are his golf clubs and his pen.
He poised to be especially busy with his pen, as he plans to bypass the U.S. Senate and signs an executive agreement to formally join the Paris Climate Accord.
It is speculated that Obama will formally sign onto the agreement during his upcoming trip to China.
…[I]t would surprise no one if Mr. Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping were to announce the ratification of the sweeping climate change agreement before the Sunday opening of the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.White House senior adviser Brian Deese said the president has the legal authority to ratify the accord without the two-thirds Senate vote required for treaties. He said the pact negotiated by 195 countries in December is merely an “executive agreement.”“The president will use his authority that has been used in dozens of executive agreements in the past to join and formally deposit our instrument of acceptance, and therefore put our country as a party to the Paris Agreement,” Mr. Deese said at a White House press conference.
But that’s not all! He just inked an executive order taking a large part of the Maine wilderness… for “environmental protection,” of course!
President Obama turned a vast stretch of Maine woods into the nation’s newest federal parkland on Wednesday, siding with conservationists who want the wild lands protected, over residents and officials who oppose intrusion from Washington and restrictions on use of the land.Mr. Obama designated more than 87,500 acres of rugged terrain, donated by a founder of the Burt’s Bees product line, as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, administered by the National Park Service, a day before the service’s 100th anniversary. It became by far the largest region of federal parkland in Maine, surpassing the 48,900-acre Acadia National Park on the coast.
This executive order went forward despite much local opposition! In fact, the reason the site has been desginated a monument rather than a national park is because of sustained opposition by the area’s residents, who voted it down by a 2-to-1 margin. The Maine Legislature has also repeatedly passed resolutions opposing the creation of another national park in Maine.
Cape Code resident Cynthia Stead explains:
…There are echoes of the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore in this situation. Predictions of loss of fishing and farming at the time have largely come to pass, although the cause is not merely the creation of the park but larger ocean forces as well. The loss of logging and hunting, the main economic driver in the Millinocket area in Maine, will hurt the remaining residents, and there does not seem to be any suggestion to replace that activity except with increased tourism.The tourist activity that the Millinocket city fathers are so skeptical about has taken over the economy of the Cape, but it is hard to know if it is beneficial or not. The low-paying seasonal jobs have drawn an influx of J-1 immigrant workers, but have forced younger families away as the wages associated with trinket sales and clam-frying proved inadequate for raising a family….But the worst of this is the lack of consensus and support. President Kennedy worked with Sen. Leverett Saltonstall to provide the legislation and the framework to fairly transition the Outer Cape towns to having a national park as a neighbor, and while there have always been disputes, there has been a rough agreement that the park is a good thing. The new Katahdin Monument doesn’t have the same partnership behind it, and it will remain in limbo, albeit pristine, without it.
Once again, Obama’s pen stabs at the heart of the American way of life.
Only 139 more days before Obama becomes the former President. I hope the golf clubs see more use than the pen from this point on.
There are over 500 golf courses in China…surely he can play a few of them during the upcomng trip.
(Featured image via Youtube).
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