Obama’s Energy Disciplines Are His “Green Dream Team”
Mr. Obama has chosen his green dream team to tackle his top energy related challenges. The group will be responsible for dealing with environmental and energy policies during his term in office. Barack Obama has outlined is top priorities that will be addressed, they include:
- Creating millions of new green jobs
- Free the US from its dependence on oil
- Preserve the world for our children
- Become stewards of God’s earth
To accomplish his goals, the president-elect looks to have his energy disciplines focus on alternative energy and link it directly with the future of the economy, national security and global warming.
Mr. Obama choices to implement his policies are being called the “Green Dream Team.” They include Carol Browner as White House energy czar, Steven Chu a Nobel Laureate for physics as head of the Energy Department, and Lisa Jackson as director of the Environmental Protection Agency. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama picked Colorado Senator Ken Salazar, who has opposed drilling in Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge, as his Interior Secretary.
“These people are savvy, experienced, they’re principled but they’re pragmatic,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters - an environmental advocacy group. “They’ve gotten the job done before and we think they can get the job done here as well.”
Obama believes that the development of alternative energy technology can create 5 million jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil. The keys to doing call for investing $150 billion over the next 10 years to build a new clean energy economy that relies on wind, solar and geothermal energy.
President-elect Obama also wants auto companies to put one million plug-in hybrid cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon on the road by 2015. He always wants to explore alternative fuels.
Environmental groups recognize Mr. Obama will face urgent priorities, including the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when he takes office. Yet these groups have high expectations. They recently released a nearly 400 page report containing hundreds of environmental initiatives - many of which they hope will be implemented by the Obama administration.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Companies can’t be allowed to pollute at will. However, reducing CO2 emissions is usually unrelated to true pollution and is only a concern if you believe excess CO2 in the atmosphere is causing catastrophic global warming (which I don’t).
Green technologies are great if they come from private organizations driven by private demand. people should be just as free to drive Priuses as Hummers. However, if the government gives the guy who bought a Prius a tax credit, they are subsidizing this green technology. This takes away our freedom because it is taxing one person in order to give it to another person for buying a government favored car. We will move beyond oil. A free market, on its own, will develop products and services that people want. Government spending on green jobs is an inefficient use of resources because it spends more on these new technologies than people would choose to do with their own money. People generally want the cheapest price they can get for energy (but they can also use their freedom to spend more on hybrids and solar panels and the like).
Government subsidies for alternative fuels forces people to pay of their hard earned cash on energy. I neglected to comment on another plank of Obama’s economic plan: major spending on infrastructure. This is the only halfway decent part of his plan. Surely some of these projects are needed, and America actually gets something for all that spending, unlike the green jobs. Good infrastructure improves productivity. However, construction workers are not the foundation of our economy. The jobs of future need to be high tech, advanced service jobs, not low tech, low education, manual labor type jobs. Hopefully Obama will take a cue from the successes of Indiana and Texas in allowing the private sector to take the lead in road and bridge projects. China, Australia, France, and other countries have also used public-private partnerships, allowing for greater efficiencies and innovation in transportation.
I would like you all to invite on one common platform to debate on these issues known as “JustMeans”. Many experts, energy environmental and social companies and individuals in these sectors share this site to express their thoughts and debate; they are using this site at large. If you would like to discuss and learn more on the topics of Green Jobs, Corporate Social Responsibility, Development, Energy and the Environment, Ethical Consumption, Politics and Governance, Social Investment, Social Media and Sustainable Business, then please do visit JustMeans site.