A Sputnik Moment for a Green Energy Future

US President Barack Obama has vowed to eliminate billions of dollars of oil subsidies in order to invest in a drive towards a clean energy future. ‘I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own,’ he said in his State of the Union address.’Instead of subsidising yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s”.  He vowed government support for research that could lead to breakthroughs in green energy, comparing such efforts to the Cold War race to the moon. Meanwhile, Carol Browner’s departure as the White House’s top adviser on climate change reflects the President’s limited ability to push his clean-energy agenda

Sky News January 26, 2011

US President Barack Obama has vowed to eliminate billions of dollars of oil subsidies in order to invest in a drive towards a clean energy future.

‘I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own,’ he said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

‘Instead of subsidising yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s,’ he added in the annual speech outlining his main policy goals.

Obama vowed government support for research that could lead to breakthroughs in green energy, comparing such efforts to the Cold War race to the moon.

‘We’re not just handing out money. We’re issuing a challenge. We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo Projects of our time,’ Obama said.

‘With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.’

Obama challenged the country to scale back its dependence on fossil fuels, setting the goal of producing 80 per cent of US electricity from ‘clean energy sources’ by 2035.

‘Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all, and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen,’ Obama said.

Last year Obama championed a clean energy bill that would have set up a ‘cap-and-trade’ program to reduce emissions in the world’s second largest polluter, only to see it die in the Senate.

He faces an even steeper climb now that resurgent Republicans – who oppose carbon regulations they say would hamper a desperately-needed economic recovery – control the House of Representatives.

The 21-page ‘Pledge to America’ released by Republicans in September calls for increased access to domestic energy sources and opposition to what they describe as a national ‘cap-and-trade’ energy tax.

Republicans have often derided Obama’s clean energy policies as ‘job killers,’ and support offshore oil drilling and drilling in the Arctic, nuclear power plants, and coal-to-liquid technology

Source: www.skynews.com.au

By Kim Chipman and Jim Snyder - Jan 26, 2011 12:52 AM GMT+0800

Carol Browner’s departure as the White House’s top adviser on climate change reflects President Barack Obama’s limited ability to push his clean-energy agenda through Congress, former Obama aide John Podesta said.

“It’s a recognition of a certain reality,” Podesta, who managed Obama’s transition team and pushed for Browner’s appointment, said in an interview today. Browner realized the chance to pass legislation curbing carbon emissions was “in the last Congress,” he said.

Browner’s plan to leave was confirmed today by Nancy Sutley, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. While Browner, 55, won the auto industry’s acceptance of tighter tailpipe emissions standards, legislation to impose cap-and-trade restrictions on carbon emissions failed in the Senate after passing the House.

“There was a feeling it was time to move on,” Podesta, who was chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, said in an interview today. “It’s a loss. I hate to see her go.”

The administration hasn’t decided whether Browner will be replaced or her job eliminated, Sutley told reporters at an energy conference in Washington today.

“Carol has been a tremendous colleague” Sutley said. “She’s very valued at the White House.”

Browner’s critics said her resignation may signal the administration’s intention to scale back environmental regulations such as the EPA’s new greenhouse-gas regulations. The rules, which took effect Jan. 2, are opposed by Republicans and some Democrats in Congress who say the limits will burden businesses and hurt the economy.

Job-Creation Obstacles

“Her departure may be part of a legitimate effort to pay careful attention to addressing some of the real regulatory obstacles in the way of job creation in the U.S.,” Scott Segal, a lawyer in the Washington office of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP who lobbies for utilities such as Southern Co., said in a e- mailed statement yesterday.

Browner’s departure doesn’t lessen the administration’s commitment on the environment, Podesta said.

“Polluters see this as an opening,” said Podesta, president of the Washington-based Center for American Progress, a public policy group that advises Democrats. “There’s no opening.”

Obama ran for president on a pledge to push for cap-and- trade, a carbon emissions-trading system that would let companies buy and sell a shrinking pool of permits to pollute. In November, a day after the midterm elections that gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives and increased their number in the Senate, Obama said cap-and-trade legislation probably wouldn’t be possible until at least 2013.

‘Just One Way’

Obama said cap-and-trade was “just one way of skinning the cat” and he would be “looking for other means to address this problem.” The president has yet to spell out such a new approach.

Browner is the latest senior administration member to depart two years into Obama’s presidency. Obama is scheduled to give his State of the Union address to Congress tonight.

Source: www.bloomberg.com/news/