President-elect Barack Obama gave a major economic speech yesterday in which he pledged to double the nation’s production of alternative energy in the next three years.
Speaking at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, he said the federal government will "modernize" more than 75% of its buildings, while supporting energy efficiency improvements in 2 million American homes.
Obama also said the U.S. must begin building a "smart grid" capable of saving money and integrating renewable energy sources.
Democratic legislators have been stumping for Obama’s legislative agenda for about a week, but this speech is likely to spark the nationwide debate over a stimulus and recovery plan that aims for ‘green’ job growth.
Already industry leaders like T. Boone Pickens and Exxon CEO Rex W. Tillerson have made public comments. Pickens said Obama’s plan is an "important first step," while Tillerson said it is a good "aspirational" goal, but he doubts the U.S. has the manufacturing capacity to double alternative energy in three years.
Analysts predicted it will be difficult to meet the goals while oil prices remain low.
The League of Conservation Voters said Obama’s plan is "just what the doctor ordered."
You can link to a transcript of Obama’s comments below. Please share your thoughts on the scope and outlook of Obama’s plan.
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Obama offers no specific steps to fix the problems that have led us to this point of a crumbling economy. The Federal Reserve banking cartel and powerful Wall Street firms engineered a financial bubble. The financial bubble collapsed after the cartel had withdrawn record profits. Then the cartel “socialized” the losses by asking taxpayers to fund a massive “bailout”.
Neither McCain nor Obama questioned the bailout – the will of the Federal Reserve banking cartel and powerful Washington financiers was too powerful for either political candidate to take them on. Now we see Obama taking on an FDR-style “new deal” program with “green features”. The only real answer to to reduce Government spending and dismantle the Federal Reserve. We also have to stop Big Oil from hijacking our energy policy. No politician will speak of this because they can’t get elected or stay elected taking on those concerns. I applaud Obama’s pledge to support renewable energy. I would suggest he set goals for Government purchase of renewable energy. There’s not much he can do to convince companies and individuals to take on similar goals without bribing them with tax write-offs and government handouts. The alternative energy industry needs to grow on a strong economic foundation – tax write-offs and handouts will certainly spur growth but some of that growth will be wasteful if it comes from “easy money”. Sorry for the long response!