'He has simply not made the case for action,' Al Gore writes of President Obama. Gore voices left's climate grumbling

Al Gore went public Wednesday with his complaints about President Barack Obama’s environmental record and leadership on climate change — legitimizing a groundswell of grumbling from the left and throwing open the door for more of the same.

The open attack on Obama from the man who was once the next president of the United States makes it safe for others to follow, and adds to the headaches for the White House, especially coming on the heels of a new poll showing that only 30 percent of Americans say they definitely plan to vote for Obama in 2012.


"President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis,” the former vice president wrote in a 7,000-word essay for Rolling Stone. "He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public."

For Obama to win a second term, he knows he'll need to generate more enthusiasm among a Democratic base that largely sat on the sidelines and watched the Republican wave in the 2010 midterms.

But the mood on Obama's left isn't good.

Liberals booed White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer last Friday over his response to a gay marriage question during the Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis. And agitation appears to be growing among some top brass in the environmental community, too, over what many see as an unnecessary capitulation to Republicans and industry.

"Unfortunately, President Obama’s instinct seems to be to avoid tough battles, relying on the argument that even as his record falls short, his administration is better on conservation than the previous one and better than any likely to succeed him should his reelection effort fall short," Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen wrote in a long blog post Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Bruce Babbitt — Interior Secretary for all eight years of the Clinton administration — accused the White House of not doing enough to maintain protections for public lands from development.

“It’s a political calculation among the munchkins in the White House,” Babbitt said. “And the political calculation is these issues cause controversy. Controversy is to be avoided at all costs because it’s not good politically.”

Betsy Taylor, a philanthropic adviser to several climate donors and foundations, said Obama has disappointed greens by sending them mixed messages.

Obama called for a clean energy standard during the State of the Union in January that promoted wind, solar and geothermal power. But he also would allow coal and nuclear power into the mix. This spring, Obama repeatedly urged Congress to slash long-standing oil industry tax breaks to be slashed but his Interior Department gave drillers permits to begin exploring again in the Gulf of Mexico.

“His defining characteristic, at least his initial one, was this sense that this man knows what matters and he has a strong moral fiber,” said Taylor, a co-founder and board president of the environmental group 1Sky. “When you see him swinging in the wind, it’s just deeply disappointing. We know he has a capacity to lead in a historic way. Instead, we see moments of this brilliance and then you can literally see him back-peddling after the oil companies visit, or the donors, or his inside staff.”

Obama has acknowledged that things haven’t always gone according to plan.

"We’ve had some setbacks, and some things haven’t happened as fast as people wanted them to happen,” Obama said during a New York fundraiser this spring. “I know. I know the conversations you guys have. Oh, you didn’t get the public option — and, gosh, I wish that energy bill had passed. I understand the frustrations. I feel them too.”

White House spokesman Clark Stevens defended Obama’s record, citing clean energy investments in the economic stimulus bill and a landmark deal for new fuel economy standards in 2009.

“The president has been clear since day one that climate change poses a threat domestically and globally, and under his leadership we have taken the most aggressive steps in our country’s history to tackle this challenge,” Stevens said.

Greens have been tormented with Obama’s handling of climate change regulations via the Environmental Protection Agency. The issue has yet to play itself out completely, with House Republicans itching to revoke the EPA’s authority through legislation and greens demanding repeated White House veto threats.

Power plants will be regulated for greenhouse gas emissions under new EPA rules due in May 2012. And new fuel economy limits are coming later this fall, with greens pushing for standards as high as 62 miles per gallon. But a resurgent Detroit and foreign automakers are pushing back against the most aggressive numbers.

“There’s no question that there's a lot of frustration with the lack of progress on climate policy to date,” said Dan Lashof, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate center.

Even the administration’s failure to meet a self-imposed end-of-spring deadline to put solar panels on the White House roof has drawn catcalls from the left. "This was a no-brainer," 350.org founder and solar roof campaigner Bill McKibben said Monday. "Republicans couldn't filibuster it, the oil companies weren't fighting it, and it still didn't get done when they said it would.

In his Rolling Stone article, Gore credited Obama for making historic investments in clean energy technology as part of the stimulus package. But he also said the president "did nothing to defend it when Congress decimated its funding."

Gore also faulted Obama on cap-and-trade legislation. While the president deserved kudos for helping the House in 2009 to pass a bill, he left the issue to wither in the Senate while alienating his allies by making “concessions to oil and coal companies without asking for anything in return.”

Many environmentalists are struggling to come to grips with exactly how hard it is to swing at an Obama White House already at war with a Republican Party full of new tea party conservatives who question any linkage between humans and global warming.

"There are more than a few on the left who see themselves as members of the president's extended team," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch. "There are many others, including me, who are less angry than very disappointed in the president's rather conventional timidity."

O'Donnell added that Obama's leading critic may not be the best person to make the case for stronger White House action. "Gore has exactly the right message, but he is a flawed messenger given he ducked the climate issue when he ran for president in 2000," he said.

Banking off his Nobel prize and Academy Award-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore in 2006 formed the Alliance for Climate Protection and promised to spend $300 million over three years — the largest funds of any environmental organization — to help push a climate bill across the finish line.

Gore’s group has not released any final spending figures, leaving doubts that he ultimately came anywhere close to his promise. According to American University researcher Matthew Nisbet, officials at the alliance told him that they’d spent $40 million in 2009.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 12:06 p.m. on June 22, 2011.