Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) a longtime foe of the Koch brothers, hosted the annual conference. For Congress and other naysayers, the president had little patience. It’s an American energy revolution that’s like evolving from the telegraph to the smartphone in less than a decade.
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At the Dept. of Interior, Secretary Sally Jewell announced that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has formally approved the Blythe Mesa solar project in California and its associated transmission infrastructure.
“While corporate interests also lobby politicians and regulators, these front groups serve a fundamental role in these assaults by adding a supposed independent, anti-clean energy voice to energy policy debates”, the EPI think tank said in a recent report.
PACE financing allows homeowners to install energy improving technologies and pay back the cost over time through their property taxes. A full list of the executive actions can be found on the White House website.
In his speech, Obama also went after Republicans in general for preventing progress on renewable energy. Reid is leaving the Senate after the 2016 election.
“I’m here to give you hope, but not complacency”, he said.
The US president endorsed Reid’s support. “America believes in the future”.
A $24 million commitment for 11 projects in seven states to double the amount of energy existing solar panels can produce. He’s got it all.
“My generation is on the sidelines of policymaking now”, he said.
Question: If more alternative energy sources were available for your home or business would you invest in them? “They like saving money”, he said. He said that they are the champions of free market solutions except when the free market boosts renewable energy.
Turning another phrase, he said, “Solar isn’t just for the green crowd anymore”. But Obama’s new way of doing business involves heavy subsidies that keep industries like ethanol and solar kicking around for another year. Wind power made up another 20 percent. “That’s a problem”, Obama said.
The explosive growth of solar in the U.S. “has some big fossil fuel interests pretty nervous”, Obama noted.
President Obama’s speech was the first leg of a climate tour that will culminate in a three-day trip to Alaska next week.
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But Obama highlighted the role individuals, not lawmakers, will play in helping grow the market for renewables.
