Should Sasha and Malia be studying by the light of a solar powered bulb?
Today, environmental author Bill McKibben and our international campaign 350.org are joining the solar company Sungevity in a new effort to encourage President Obama to reinstall an updated set of solar panels on the White House roof.
In 1979, President Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House only to have them taken down by Reagan a few years later. (Reagan also slashed subsidies for solar and now other nations dominate the industry).
People can sign onto a letter to Obama at the PutSolarOn.It website that just launched.
“Panels on the White House will remind every visitor to Washington that every roof in America should have solar panels for electricity and hot water on them,” said McKibben. “The President’s panels will do as much good as the wonderful organic garden that the First Lady planted on the South Lawn.”
Since Michelle planted her first seeds, the number of Americans with vegetable gardens has grown by 19%. McKibben and our team at 350.org hope that getting solar panels back up on the White House could help clean energy spread just as fast.
“Nothing replaces legislation that really cuts carbon, although last week's announcement of $2 billion in funding for solar projects is a good start” said McKibben. “One way to build support for those changes is to show how easy it is to start to work. It’s time for President Obama to roll up his sleeves and get to work at his own home and in Congress.”
The PutSolarOn.It campaign isn’t focusing on just President Obama. Citizens can also send letters encouraging President Hu Jintao to add panels to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing or requesting Prime Minister David Cameron to retrofit the British Parliament.
The campaign’s scoreboard has already checked off on one world leader: President Mohamed Nasheed, who recently committed to make the low-lying Maldives the first carbon neutral country, has already pledged to put up panels on his home.
At 350.org, we're working hard to walk our own clean energy talk. This October 10, 10/10/10, we're working with 10:10 campaign to host a Global Work Party, encouraging communities across the globe to get to work on climate solutions and celebrate a clean energy. Over 1,000 work parties are already registered in more than 100 countries.
Prime Minister Cameron has already committed to cut the UK government’s emissions by 10% in 2010, the goal of the 10:10 campaign that’s swept the UK. Getting panels up on the White House would be one way for President Obama to start catching up.
And what about those panels that used to be on top of the White House? After they were taken down, the bulk of them ended up on top of the cafeteria at Unity College in Maine. If President Obama doesn’t get a new set, maybe we’ll try and get the students to take the panels down and drive them back to the White House!
In the meantime, the public can keep up the heat by sending a letter through the PutSolarOn.It website.
Who knows, maybe before too long President Obama will be signing a new climate law by the light of a solar powered bulb?
Follow Jamie Henn on Twitter: www.twitter.com/agent350
http://SolarMaxDirect.com
This web site might be helpful with more information about renewable energy,how we can use it,capture it, and free research on companies who are dealing with sale and manufacturing of different products.
http://www.SolarByTheWatt.com
It's a really good story that Carter installed solar power and Reagan took it out - and yes, that's true - but solar power returned to the grounds post-Reagan, and has been gradually increasing ever since. Give credit where it's due.
Ronald Reagan had them removed.
Fact.
the white house should have state of the art, esthetically perfect solar panels.
The best panels are 40% efficient.
They need to to be integrated into th4e white house roofs, so that they are just barely discernible.
Solar has to be backed up by low efficiency gas plant. It is actually cheaper, uses less gas, and produces less GHG. if we skip the solar and use high efficiency CCGT gas plant instead.
nukes are insane....
Waste storage alone costs 30 DOLLAR per Wh over a million years....
solar is 3-6 cents per KWH.
Many have tried to explain grid connect to research. He just can't seem to get it.
Research 3 cents a kwh assumes no installation or finance charges. Using his fire sale prices. the real cost is 35 cents a kwh for the average American roof and 25 cents in the desert.
Using his methods the new Vogtle nuclear installallation would cost 2 cents a kwh.
Real cost of American nuclear power built by American engineers in five years or less overseas for public power companies instead of the attorney’s, corrupt private power companies and pet politicians, and greedy wall street financiers taking ten years at four times the cost to build the same nuclear plants in the US.
AP1000 build $1.2B/Gw 2007, 1.3 cents a kwh
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&refer=asia&sid=aJPyNB5Q_Fr0
I'll put my lifetime hockey puck sized piece of nuclear waste in by backyard, if we can bury your houses a hundred feet deep in the toxic radioactive coal dust that you are responsible for.
30 DOLLAR per KWH waste disposal cost for nukes.
NRC mandated waste disposal cost assessments are .1 cents a kwh with $30B in the kitty. Since nuclear waste is valuable nuclear fuel for gen iv reactors actual disposal cost is zero.
56kWp of Solar Power, which is pretty cool. Maybe Angela Merkel can bring Obama some panels as a gift next time.
http://clinton3.nara.gov/Initiatives/Climate/greeningsummary.html