The President's Oval Office Address and What's Next

I applaud President Obama's call for a comprehensive legislative solution to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil gusher is just the latest and most tragic reminder of the environmental, economic and human consequences of our addiction to oil and other dirty sources of energy.

The president is right to focus on stopping the spill and working to limit, to the degree possible, its impact on the Gulf ecosystem. But ultimately the only way to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again is to fundamentally change how we power our economy. Placing a limit on global warming pollution and accelerating the deployment of clean energy technologies is the only truly effective long-term solution to this crisis.

Now it is time for the Senate to act. In the midst of the greatest environmental disaster in our country's history, there is no excuse to do otherwise.

This post originally appeared at Al's Journal.