Obama’s on a Strong Clean Energy Streak [VIDEO]
We covered the great news this week that Obama finally accepted the solar panel that Jimmy Carter originally put on the White House and is going to put it on there again.
But there are a couple of other big Obama/clean energy news stories from the past week or so that I think deserve more attention than they’ve gotten.
While putting a solar panel on the White House is a nice symbolic gesture (and will cut CO2 emissions a little bit), and hopefully it will inspire others around the country and even the world to do so on their homes, federal policies promoting solar energy would probably go a lot further.
Well, Obama is, he says, serious about getting those implemented as well. In an interview with Rolling Stone last week, Obama emphasized that he intended to make energy a top priority in 2011, giving it as much attention as he gave healthcare in his first year in office.
“During the past two years, we’ve not made as much progress as I wanted to make when I was sworn into office,” Obama said. “One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our over-reliance on fossil fuels.”
Of course, Obama’s intentions are not all that matter. I agree that he hasn’t put enough of his power and attention into pushing clean energy so far, but he at least has the right intentions and if he had the power, he would get us moving in the clean energy race a lot faster than we are. The problem has been counter-productive Senators more than anything.
The other good news regarding Obama this last week or so is that he has really called these Senators out on this issue (and the dirty energy industry supporting them). In the Rolling Stone piece and in his weekly address to the nation last week.
As Timothy Hurst, introducing Obama’s weekly address over on ecopolitology writes:
In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama touched on one of his favorite topics: the link between job growth and energy independence. But during this election season, the President also touched on the reasons why, despite previous attempts to do so, we’ve been unable to sustain support for and growth in the clean energy sector.
Check out his weekly address here (and check out the Rolling Stone piece above for a lot more on this topic):
Overcoming the opposition to needed evolution of our out-dated energy infrastructure is no easy task, but hopefully with more focus on this, Obama can get more done in 2011.
Photo Credit: nasa hq photo via flickr
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