Can I get a Hallelujah?

I'll admit, I was just as head-over-heels balls-to-the-wall batshit-insane in love with the idea of Obama becoming our President as the next media-drenched loser. I have bought T-shirts, canvas bags, and even baby onesies with his face on them. I tried to pump up friends and family to vote for him, and I did cry a little during his acceptance and inauguration speeches.

All along, I felt a slight twinge of hesitation to throw myself at his feet and offer myself up wholly to him, since after all he's just a man. And a politician at that. I couldn't necessarily put all my trust in him to do the right thing at all times, no matter how much I thought him capable of doing so. And I still hold to that - who knows what might happen and what he might end up doing? Nobody.

But. As of now. My GOD I love the man. He's been in office for almost a week exactly, and he's already being a total hardass about the environment. After years and years of watching my highest priority not just ignored but actually chucked out of the White House and by the Wayside by a bunch of ultraviolent, greedy hooligans, things are starting to move forward.

Check THIS out: Obama is pushing for higher fuel efficiency in all cars BY 2011, by telling the EPA to reconsider a request by California (which would then be followed by at least 13 other states, including New York) to "set its own rules on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks"!

As was pointed out by the NY Times, this is significant for many reasons, but one that can't be overlooked is that while Bush specifically broke a campaign promise to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide put out by America, but Obama has begun his presidency "with a clear signal that he will not hesitate to use the regulatory levers provided by the Clean Air Act and other federal statutes to fight global warming."

"No single issue is as fundamental to our future as energy," said Obama. "The days of Washington dragging its heels are over." In what could be seen as a stark jab at the Bush administration's equivocal approach to climate science, Obama said, "My administration will not deny facts. We will be guided by them."

Hell yeah! Take that, all you lazy, oil-hungry sods who tried to pretend everything was coming up roses when it was actually burbling up DOOM. He takes this seriously, and it's about damn time. Tough love to all you car makers, and tough luck to anyone trying to deny what's actually happening to our environment and humanity as we keep sucking on the dried-up tit of the earth's oil resources. These attitudes are going to have to stop, or at least be buried under the avalanche of science.

I'm thrilled because Obama is actually following through - immediately - on his promises to restructure the ways in which Americans use and think about energy. He campaigned on a promise to push America toward energy independence and responsibility toward the environment, and only a week in, he's already advocated the use of $54 billion from his proposed stimulus package toward modernizing the electricity grid, pouring more into research on alternative energy sources, and building new jobs in new energy to replace the ones that will be lost in the bad economy. He's now pushing for fuel efficiency in cars driven in America



I am so jubilantly happy that I can't even write a decent blog post about this. So, sorry, that's all she wrote for today.