Comments to White House on President's Speech

I sent the following to the White House in response to the President's speech last week:

There seems to be a widespread view that the part of the President’s speech relating to “accelerating” the changeover to nonfossil fuels and renewable energy was short on specifics. One could imagine the President, echoing John F. Kennedy, having said something like “before this decade is out, I am committed to ensuring that at least half of America’s electric power will be generated from renewable sources, and at least 25% of the motor fuels used in this country will come from biomass, not oil.” (That would be extremely ambitious… but that’s what the people are yearning for… real commitment to something that will be a mission to make our country secure from foreign oil, and reduce the detrimental impact of fossil fuel use, with the added benefit of creating millions of Green Jobs).

It’s not too late… the President needs to follow up on this speech… and soon… with ambitious and concrete proposals, for R&D into biomass, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, wind, Ocean Thermal, local energy generation, biofuels, synfuels, and putting the electric grid in place to where the new power sources are… all of which will be a huge commitment. Emphasis: not just research, but we will build what works, and quickly, because our nation’s future depends on it. It needs to be a teaching moment, where the President informs the American people about what is possible, and what he intends that we will do.

Then, speak directly to the American people and ASK for their support. Most people WANT to support the President, but they need to have something real and concrete to latch on to.

This will work, but the President has to be very determined and really mean it, and he needs to say it soon, forcefully, and repeatedly.