{"id":139,"date":"2008-08-05T02:19:33","date_gmt":"2008-08-05T07:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2008-08-05T02:19:33","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T07:19:33","slug":"obamas-energy-independence-promise-and-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2008\/08\/05\/obamas-energy-independence-promise-and-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama's Energy Independence Promise and Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

read the whole thing here<\/a>, thanks to paul krugman for the pointer.
\nObama’s Promises:<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I am President, I will immediately direct the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a single, overarching goal \u2013 in ten years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela.\u00a0 To do this, we will invest $150 billion over the next ten years and leverage billions more in private capital to build a new energy economy that harnesses American energy and creates five million new American jobs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, we will help states like Michigan build the fuel-efficient cars we need, and we will get one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on our roads within six years.
\n………………
\nThe second step I\u2019ll take is to require that 10% of our energy comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term \u2013 more than double what we have now.\u00a0 To meet these goals, we will invest more in the clean technology research and development that\u2019s occurring in labs and research facilities all across the country and right here at MSU, where you\u2019re working with farm owners to develop this state\u2019s wind potential and developing nanotechnology that will make solar cells cheaper.
\n……………..
\nFinally, the third step I will take is to call on businesses, government, and the American people to meet the goal of reducing our demand for electricity 15% by the end of the next decade.\u00a0 This is by far the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to reduce our energy consumption \u2013 and it will save us $130 billion on our energy bills.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

his challenge:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the choice that we face in the months ahead. This is the challenge we must meet.\u00a0 This is the opportunity we must seize \u2013 and this may be our last chance to seize it.
\nAnd if it seems too difficult or improbable, I ask you to think about the struggles and the challenges that past generations have overcome.\u00a0 Think about how World War II forced us to transform a peacetime economy still climbing out of Depression into an Arsenal of Democracy that could wage war across three continents.\u00a0 And when President Roosevelt\u2019s advisors informed him that his goals for wartime production were impossible to meet, he waved them off and said \u201cbelieve me, the production people can do it if they really try.\u201d\u00a0 And they did.
\nThink about when the scientists and engineers told John F. Kennedy that they had no idea how to put a man on the moon, he told them they would find a way.\u00a0 And we found one.\u00a0 Remember how we trained a generation for a new, industrial economy by building a nationwide system of public high schools; how we laid down railroad tracks and highways across an entire continent; how we pushed the boundaries of science and technology to unlock the very building blocks of human life.
\nI ask you to draw hope from the improbable progress this nation has made and look to the future with confidence that we too can meet the great test of our time.\u00a0 I ask you to join me, in November and in the years to come, to ensure that we will not only control our own energy, but once again control our own destiny, and forge a new and better future for the country that we love.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PS couldn’t help myself:<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t hear me say this too often, but I couldn\u2019t agree more with the explanation that Senator McCain offered a few weeks ago.\u00a0 He said, \u201cOur dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.\u201d
\nWhat Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them.\u00a0 And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.\u00a0 He voted against increased fuel efficiency standards and opposed legislation that included tax credits for more efficient cars.\u00a0 He voted against renewable sources of energy.\u00a0 Against clean biofuels.\u00a0 Against solar power.\u00a0 Against wind power.\u00a0 Against an energy bill that \u2013 while far from perfect \u2013 represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country.\u00a0 So when Senator McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, it\u2019s important to remember that he\u2019s been a part of that failure. Now, after years of inaction, and in the face of public frustration over rising gas prices, the only energy proposal he\u2019s really promoting is more offshore drilling \u2013 a position he recently adopted that has become the centerpiece of his plan, and one that will not make a real dent in current gas prices or meet the long-term challenge of energy independence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

read the whole thing here, thanks to paul krugman for the pointer. Obama’s Promises: If I am President, I will immediately direct the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a single, overarching goal \u2013 in ten years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Obama's Energy Independence Promise and Challenge”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}