Politics of Energy and the Energy of Politics - II

On the night of Tuesday, February 24, 2009, President Obama addressed a joint session of congress. Traditionally such a session is attended by both houses of congress as well as the Supreme Court, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the members of the president’s cabinet, as was this one.

The speech was not an official “State of the Union” address, per se, which is given in mid-January each year. But it had dual intentions: (1) Present his full program to the congress and the people and (2) to attempt to restore confidence in the American financial system.

The speech represented careful concern and strong statements covering healthcare, education, the financial crisis – Wall Street responsibilities and energy.

The energy proposals were expected since there has been much talk recently about “renewable energy,” – wind power, solar power, advanced biofuels and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks and, most important in our opinion, laying down “thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy….”

There was one major thing missing.

And one major mistake.

The mistake was to continue to pander to the oil/coal interests by offering “clean coal” and oxymoron if there ever was one. To be continued.

The major missing part could replace the coal, oil, burning biofuels and any other cause of the “carbon pollution” forever:

HYDROPOWER

We have discussed this solution a number of times recently and will be offering many more details in coming weeks.

Details such as...

- Pricing (not uniform by any current means)
- Controls (that do not exist for the oil people)
- The “grid system” (the part that really exists)

We hope the President’s program succeeds.