Obama to use Gulf oil spill for energy agenda push

[IronLionZion]

Source: CNN

President Barack Obama will use the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico to advance his alternative energy agenda Wednesday, according to excerpts of a speech the president is set to deliver at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University.

"The catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf right now may prove to be a result of human error -- or corporations taking dangerous short-cuts that compromised safety," Obama says in the excerpts. "But we have to acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth -- risks that are bound to increase the harder oil extraction becomes. Just like we have to acknowledge that an America run solely on fossil fuels should not be the vision we have for our children and grandchildren."

Obama's emphasis on energy issues is expected to be part of a broader focus in the president's speech on the state of the economy. Administration officials pledged to focus strongly on job creation earlier in the year but have since been forced to grapple with a host of unexpected challenges, including the oil spill.

"The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a clean energy future," Obama says in the prepared remarks. "That means everything from our homes and businesses to our cars and trucks more energy efficient. It means tapping into our natural gas reserves, and moving ahead with our plan to expand our nation's fleet of nuclear power plants. And it means rolling back billions of dollars in tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/02/obama.oil.spill/index.html

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This speech is happening right now. It might be televised.

[Jennicut]

1. Good, because this is the best opportunity any President will have

on this issue. People will actually listen, Congress will only listen if they have massive public pressure.

[zipplewrath]

4. Why am I not encouraged

He has shown himself to be incremental, not transformational. And the news this week led with him basically explaining that he was putting together a blue ribbon commission to determine HOW drilling could be done "safely" not IF it could be done. Then he follows up with this kind of speech.

This is a moment to be seized boldly. Not a chance to begin to studying the larger question and determine if there aren't some avenues of change which could ultimate be fruitful in the future when coordinated with a solid sustainable approach of current and emerging techologies which can all counted upon to succeed in a nonpartisan manner and that considers the needs and ideas of all people with a stake in the outcome.

[Jennicut]

7. We are not going to stop drilling. Not sure why anyone thinks that when

we have no alternative energy framework in place. Any little thing Obama does will be better then what we have now, which is basically nothing. Carter had some good ideas and what shut down by Reagan. We have not seriously discussed this since the 1970's...and I was born then! Thirty-something years later we still have done nothing. And no one is going to be transformational with a Congress so tied to outside interests. Like I said, their changing will not come from the President but from us, if at all.

[zipplewrath]

8. So you're saying my cynicism is well founded.

We have alternatives "in place" but they are going to be slow rolled if the "easy" answer is to dig more coal and drill for more oil. Signalling before the fact, and now after the fact, that we won't do anything about drilling really isn't going to advance an alternative energy agenda. These kinds of events are where you can BE translational. But you have to be ready and you have to be willing to be bold.

[jpak]

2. K&R - we need offshore wind power and electric cars - not 5000 foot deep oil wells and Hummers

yup!

[dipsydoodle]

3. Its the requirements of your military

the USA usually has in mind so I guess you'll keep your 5000 foot deep oil wells too.

[jpak]

5. and the UK military is not dependent on North Sea oil?

and didn't the UK retake the Malvinas to secure their potential for offshore oil production?

:D

[dipsydoodle]

6. Maybe so

but the subject here is the good 'ol USA. :)

[Grinchie]

9. This might as well be titled "Stop Solar Energy Now!"

Simply because direct conversion of the 1000 watt's per square meter that irradiates the earth every day is virtually ignored.

Go Nuclear Rah Rah, While that impudent Iran, with crushing air pollution in Tehran is branded as a Bomb maker for pursuing Nuclear energy.

Screw a Solar Panel on every roof, we need a "Fleet" of nuclear power plants for the unwashed masses. There is a reason his "Energy Bill" is stuck in Congress.. It's because Americans resoundingly do not accept that Nuclear Energy is viable or safe. The outcome of a Nuclear disaster make the Gulf Oil Spill look like a picnic in the park.

Obama is such a horrifyingly docile DLC Puppet is sickening.

This administration is a disaster, worse than anything Hillary Clinton was capable of.. Oh wait, she's rattling the War Drum at Iran and North Korea while hiding out in regards to the Israeli massacre of "Peace Activists"!



I thought Dubya was a disaster, but this one is equally stupid.. He's contnet to trade one Chernobyl for another...

[Iowa]

10. Well said.