Clean Renewable Energy Is Obama's Earth Day Message

The framework establishes a program to grant leases, easements, and rights-of-way for orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible renewable energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of off-shore wind farms. The new program also establishes methods for sharing revenues generated from OCS renewable energy projects with adjacent coastal states.

President Barack Obama speaks with a worker during his tour at the Trinity Structural Towers Manufacturing Plant in Newton, Iowa, April 22, 2009. (Photo by Pete Souza courtesy The White House)

President Obama made the announcement in Newton at Trinity Structural Towers, a former Maytag appliance factory that now houses a green manufacturing facility producing towers for wind energy production and employing dozens of former Maytag employees.

Marking Earth Day, the President reaffirmed his commitment to a comprehensive energy plan that lessens U.S. dependence on foreign oil, creates jobs and helps win the race toward clean energy technology. With the depletion of the world's oil reserves and the growing climate disruption, the development of clean, renewable sources of energy is the growth industry of the 21st century, he said.

"The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy, it's a choice between prosperity and decline," the President said.

"We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs working to prevent its worst effects," he said. "We can hand over the jobs of the 21st century to our competitors or we can confront what countries in Europe and Asia have already recognized as both a challenge and an opportunity - the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy."

"America can be that nation. America must be that nation," the President said. "And while we seek new forms of fuel to power our homes and cars and businesses, we will rely on the same ingenuity – the same American spirit – that has always been a part of our American story."

Obama said that his administration will be pursuing comprehensive legislation to move toward energy independence and prevent the worst consequences of climate change – while creating incentives that will make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.

Last week, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court, Obama reminded the crowd in Newton, the EPA determined that carbon dioxide and other tailpipe emissions are harmful to the health and wellbeing of the American people.

"There is no question that we have to regulate carbon pollution," he said. "The only question is how we do so."

While the federal government limits pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, there are no limits on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

"This is called the carbon loophole," Obama said, and proposed to close this loophole with legislation that places a market-based cap on these kinds of emissions. Today key members of the administration are testifying in Congress on a bill that seeks to enact this kind of market-based approach.

From left, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Iowa Governor Chet Culver and President Barack Obama in Des Moines, Iowa. April 22, 2009 (Photo by Dropte)

Obama explained how a market-based cap would work.

"We would set a cap on all of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that our economy is allowed to produce in total, combining the emissions from cars and trucks, coal-fired power plants, energy-intensive industries, and other sources," he said.

"By setting a cap, carbon pollution would become like a commodity. It would have a value as a limited resource. To determine that value, much like any other traded commodity, we'd create a market where companies could buy and sell the right to produce a certain amount. In this way, a company can determine for itself whether it makes sense to spend the money to become cleaner or more efficient, or to spend the money on a certain amount of allowable pollution," the President explained.

"Over time, as the cap on greenhouse gases is lowered, the commodity would become scarcer – and the price would go up," he said. "Year by year, companies and consumers would have greater incentive to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency, as the price of the status quo became more expensive."

"By closing the carbon loophole through this kind of market-based cap," Obama said, "we can address in a systematic way all the facets of the energy crisis: lowering our dependence on foreign oil, reducing our use of fossil fuels, and promoting new industries right here in America."

He encouraged every American to take small steps towards energy efficiency by inflating tires to reduce gasoline consumption, for instance, or by using more efficient light bulbs.

"For example, if each of us replaced just one ordinary incandescent light bulb with one compact fluorescent, that could save enough energy to light three million homes," Obama said.

Going from the small steps that individuals can take to the large steps that governments must take, Obama told his Newton audience how he intends to help build a "global coalition" to solve the problems of climate change.

"Our climate knows no boundaries; the decisions of any nation will affect every nation," he said. "Next week, I will be gathering leaders of major economies from around the world to talk about how we can work together to address this energy crisis."

"It is true that the United States has been slow to participate in this kind of a process. But those days are now over," the President said. "We are ready to engage – and we are asking other nations to join us in tackling this challenge together, including those nations that have not been quick to act."

"All of the steps we have taken in just these first three months represent perhaps more progress than we have achieved in three decades," he said. "We are beginning the difficult work of reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We are beginning to break the bonds of fossil fuels. We are beginning to create a new, clean energy economy – and the millions of jobs that will flow from it."

"The American people are ready to be part of this mission," he said.

President Obama told the crowd that this generation of Americans can leave a clean energy legacy for future generations, "a legacy of vehicles powered by clean renewable energy traveling past newly opened factories; of burgeoning industries employing millions of Americans in the work of protecting our planet; of an economy exporting the energy of the future – instead of importing the energy of the past; of a nation once again leading the world to meet the challenges of our time.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.