Pundits have generally given President Obama bad reviews on last week’s oval office speech, but as he often does, Jon Stewart hit the mark like no one else. Not because he was funnier (which he was) but because he put Obama’s speech in context. As Stewart shows, every president since Richard Nixon has given an earnest speech calling for an end to America’s dependence on foreign oil.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | ||
| An Energy-Independent Future | |||
| www.thedailyshow.com | |||
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In his 1974 State of the Union speech, Nixon said:
At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving.
Every president since has repeated the call for energy independence while our dependence on oil imports has risen from less than 20% to over 60%.
As I have argued before, we do have a chance, finally, to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that would genuinely put us on a path to move our economy Beyond Petroleum. But more and more the talk in Washington is that it’s just too hard to pass a comprehensive bill that would actually get the job done. Wouldn’t it be easier to pass a piecemeal bill that raises the oil spill liability limits for oil companies, provides some money for Gulf Coast restoration, and sets some goals for reducing oil consumption?
These are all worthy measures, and yes, it would be easier to pass a scaled back bill that fails to address the heart of the challenge. But if President Obama accepts such an approach we will be having the same conversation 36 years from now that we had back in 1974 when President Nixon said we will end our dependence on energy imports by the end of the decade.
The fact is, only a bill that includes real, enforceable limits on carbon pollution that drive investments into clean energy technology and infrastructure can break our addiction to oil. A “half-assed” bill, as Senator Lindsey Graham so aptly put it (before he made a politically-driven U-turn), will not do the job because investors are smart enough to recognize the difference between a real commitment and a hortatory one.
I don’t doubt President Obama’s sincerity, and he certainly knows the history of presidents promising, and failing, to deliver real reform (see Robert Gibb’s answer to a question submitted by John of Grand Isle, LA, starting at 11:50 in this video). He also knows how to get big things done. After all, he delivered real health care reform after even a longer list of previous presidents failed, and after it was declared dead by pundits many times.
At the end of the day what the pundits think about President Obama’s oval office speech doesn’t matter. What matters is what he does over the next few weeks. As the November election draws closer, more and more Members of Congress will be tempted to take the easy way out, by passing a bill that does little, while claiming it does a lot. The president, and the public, must not allow them to get away with that this time.
So if Senate leaders don’t bring a comprehensive energy and climate bill to the floor next month, including real limits on carbon pollution, I wish they would just print up some buttons that say Whip Oil Now (WON), declare victory, and go home.
This post originally appeared on NRDC's Switchboard blog.
“Save money, cut the deficit, employ everyone, cut energy dependence:
Immediately order energy retrofits for all gov buildings.
Rooftop PV Solar, Offshore wind, and Waste Bio char, can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs: cleanly, safely, Forever, within 12 years and cheaper in the long run 2-6 cents now, and 26$ per barrel bio oils.
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
about 1$ per Wp solar panels, new.
install solar plants for about $1.30 per watt, compared with an industry average of about $1.75, according to Hardy." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a7K1FZoNgJ0w
Wind: “between two and six cents today, depending on location.12 Wind power approaches competitiveness with conventional generation at this price point. “
http://www.repp.org/articles/static/1/binaries/wind%20issue%20brief_FINAL.pdf
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/publ/BiofBioproBioref%203,%20547-562,%202009%20Laird.pdf
26$ per barrel bio oil from waste bio char.
unfortunately our governmnet is a plutocracy. Fossils and Nukes have 100 times as much money as Green energy,
Outlaw political Bribery.
For instance, it's obvious that Republicans think it's OK to hurt the unemployed by preventing a jobs bill just because it'll stop Obama and may get them back in power. Will they keep this up for another 2-1/2 years to try to regain the White House? Two more years of massive unemployment just for a power grab? That just doesn't seem right.
Big Energy and Big Banks are the problem. They cannot possibly be the solution, even if they "partner" with greenwashers. The people who want energy independence and a healthy planet realize that it must all derive from the ALREADY BUILT ENVIRONMENT, and not permanently kill millions more acres of wilderness for Big Energy profits.
Until you get on the right track and stop supporting Big Solar and Big Wind and Big Energy and Big Banks, we will all keep fighting you. We need point of use solutions that are democratically owned, affordable and will actually reduce GHG emissions - efficiency upgrades and rooftop solar need to be the centerpiece of any economic and environmental policy, not BP Wind and Goldman Sachs Solar.
It is horrifying how the Big Enviros have sold out to Big Energy, but luckily, people are starting to get wise. Will you?
This country will move forward when we are forced to move forward
Those companies who benefit off the oil industry have so much power and influence in DC that they will not allow us to move forward in a progressive way.
It just won't happen