In case you missed President Obama's State of the Union address, here's a summary of what he said regarding Energy, dirty and clean.
Obama called for an "all of the above" energy policy to appeal to constituents across the board, as energy will be a major plank of his re-election campaign. Obama supports developing every kind of energy including oil, natural gas and renewables. He didn't mention nuclear during the speech.
But he clearly favors replacing oil subsidies with support for the clean energy industry.
"We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs."
He acknowledged the ideological divide in Congress is too great to "fight climate change." In his sole slip during the speech, he stumbled over the word "fight" (he said flight) and gargled the words "climate
change," barely able to get them out.
President Obama is in Nevada and Colorado this week, selling the energy proposals he outlined
in the State of the Union address. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is
also on the road promoting the energy agenda in New Mexico.
Clean Energy
Obama urged Congress to extend the expiring renewable energy production tax credit (PTC), which is crucial particularly for the wind industry.
As he did in his previous State of the Union address, Obama again called for a Clean Energy Standard "that creates a market for innovation."
Unfortunately, his Clean Energy Standard would include energy that many of us don't consider clean. In addition to wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable sources, it would include nuclear, natural gas and clean coal. Here's how renewable energy might fare if there were a Clean Energy Standard rather
than a Renewable Energy Standard.
Although there are plans to introduce Clean Energy Standard legislation, there's little hope that it would pass in the GOP-dominated House.
Obama defended government support for renewable energy research. "And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural-gas out of shale rock."
Referring to the U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee to Solyndra, he said, "Our experience with shale gas shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don't always come right away." "Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail."
"But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here."
He also referred to the trade complaints filed against China by both the solar and wind industries.
"Global competitiveness in clean energy - and beyond - also requires an increased emphasis on ensuring fair trade policies." He announced the creation of a Trade Enforcement unit which will investigate cases of unfair trading practices.
"I will not stand by when our competitors don't play by the rules. We've brought trade cases against China at nearly twice the rate as the last administration, and it's made a difference. It's not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because they're heavily subsidized."
"I'm directing my administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public land to power 3 million homes. And I'm proud to announce that the Department of Defense, the world's largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history -- with the Navy
purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year."
During his travels this week, Obama will stop at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, where he'll announce the U.S. Navy's commitment to add 1 gigawatt of renewables to its energy portfolio.
He also asked Congress to send him a bill that gives manufacturers incentives to eliminate
energy waste in their factories and to upgrade their buildings.
