The Political Environment

The Political Environment

The Kennedy’s, one of the most prolific political dynasty’s in American history, have produced some of the most influential  political actors of our time. One such character is Robert F Kennedy Jr. . The Kennedy's have been a constant political force for more than half a century now. RFK is the nephew of John F Kennedy, one of the most prominent leftist presidents of the modern era, despite his untimely demise.  RFK is son of, obviously, the first RFK who was a New York Senator until the time of his assassination in 1968. RFK  has been a constant environmental protector since he started working with river-keeper and explaining the things he stands up for, might help us to understand the landscape of environmental politics.  

He is the president of the Water Keepers Alliance, an organization fighting to protect over 1.6 million water ways across the globe. Kennedy has been a prominent voice for promoting American entrance into a new energy economy. He has pushed for wind, solar, nuclear (tentatively) energy over oil. He appeared on Morning Joe, a political morning show, warning that not only should we move to clean energy for our own sake, but because the Middle East and China have not shied away from the new sources of revenue. The government subsidies the coal industry at such a larger rate than the clean energy industry has left American clean energy companies susceptible to price dumping by places like China. Price dumping is a process in which a country floods the market of another company with drastically cheaper priced items. The result is that the native companies go bankrupt. The Clean Energy companies are not failing because they aren't able to compete in the market, but simply because the Chinese government has made Clean Energy a priority and they subsidize their companies at a rate that we don’t compete with in America.

On July 2009, Kennedy appeared on CNNMoney to talk about the enormous external cost of coal onto the people of America, despite it seemingly cheap sticker price. He says “ coal only appears cheap because the rest of us pay the cost. He says that “In New York State it’s  unsafe to eat almost any fresh water fish caught in the state because of the mercury that has been discharged from those plants end up polluting those places. According to the CDC one out of every six American women now have so much mercury in  her womb that her child is at the risk of severe birth defects. These are the types of externalized costs… You don’t see that cost when you pay your bill though”. There is certainly merit to what he is saying, but I wonder if he doesn’t lay blame in the correct places.    

The call for a push to clean energy is an interesting philosophic ethical lab, but it’s also a question of politics and economics. I believe in reducing the subsidies for oil companies, though I’m not so confident about raising subsidies for Clean Energy Companies. I understand the issue of price dumping by China, but the United States shouldn’t be fighting fire with fire. They should be taking steps to reduce protectionary measures on the whole by working through such international institutions like the WTO, which I believe, they have since his comments were made. On the case of the coal companies externalizing costs, he is mostly correct. However I would put the blame on our government. Our government has failed to protect citizens from extraordinary unseen threats like those of the externalized costs of coals. There should be some consumer advocacy for educating the public on issue, as such, that the mundane public would have no reason to be aware of, or have access to information about. While I’m not coals number one fan, it is a private economic forces’ goal to make money. So if there are costs they are able to externalize, then that is what they will do. It’s not honorable but it is reasonable within proper context. However, it’s the government’s job to protect us from threats so, large or invasive that we might not be able to see it in our own lives or protect ourselves against it. At least that is John Locke’s perspective, and he is just the one of the founders of classical liberalism and the inspiration for most of Jefferson influence into creating our nation, which is to say the least, considerable. The fact that the public has no champion in this fight is a failure of government.

I don’t want to be misunderstood, I’m not saying that I prefer coal over clean energy. I am a progressive and I favor progressive infrastructural development. Clean energy is the future. But perhaps its more time effective and pragmatic to blame the people we elected to serve us and not the enormous company whose sole mission it is to make money. Either RFK is clearly a figure in the American  body politic that spurs great debate and thought, and that is a legacy that’s a  proud addition to the Kennedy name.