The president, in a speech set for a clean energy conference in Las Vegas Monday night, called for new executive actions and other efforts aimed at making it easier for homeowners and businesses to invest in green energy improvements that in the past may have been impractical or unaffordable.
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Obama said that in some cases renewable energy was becoming cheaper than conventional energy and it was “impossible to overstate what that means”. The president said he is committed to getting the U.S. 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030. “They like saving money”.
Obama touted a slew of wonky climate and renewable policy announcements during the speech, including the news that the administration is opening the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program up to distributed energy projects with a $1 billion solicitation.
“It’s good being back out on the road after spending some downtime with my family, recharging my own batteries”, the president joked at the energy focused summit. “This is the only planet we have”. “Rather than fighting change, utilities should be integrating new technologies into their business models”.
“We’re here today because we believe that no challenge poses a greater threat to our future than climate change”, Obama said.
At Monday’s Las Vegas summit, the message was largely economic.
“It’s one thing if you’re consistent in being free market”, Obama said.
Even these numbers are considered low, as they don’t include any “behind-the-meter” solar generation, meaning small-scale rooftop installations done by consumers are not counted in the tally, only larger utility-scale projects such as those sited in the Imperial Valley east of San Diego.
Those stand in contrast, he said, to the efforts of “fossil-fuel interests or conservative interests or the Koch Brothers” to roll back renewable-energy incentives.
The annual energy conference is hosted by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
“Our electric grid has barely changed in a century, but that is quickly coming to an end”, he said.
“They’re using a model that was developed by Westinghouse and Edison in 1888”, Reid said of the company. “The same approach should be true in business”. “This is not, and should not be, a Republican-versus-Democratic issue”.
Obama also vowed to defend his climate change policies, including the recently launched Clean Power Plan, from attacks by fossil fuel industry lobbyists and Republican opponents.
“Pushback is slowing the progress we’ve made”, he said. “You have to choose”.
“They’re trying to undermine competition in the marketplace and choke off consumer choice and threaten an industry that is turning out new jobs at a fast pace”, Obama said.
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Obama also was announcing the approval of a transmission line that will support a 485-megawatt solar plant planned for Riverside County in California.
