President Bush Goes Solar
Environmentalists throughout the world are still in shock. Who
would've every thought President Bush would push solar energy?
The Initiative
As you undoubtedly know by now, the President George Bush
announced it was time to start weaning ourselves from our oil
addiction during his State of the Union speech. As with anything
in politics, there is much gnashing of the teeth as to whether
the President, an avowed oil man form an oil family in Texas,
really means to do anything. The answer, of course, is really
almost irrelevant if people would stop to consider the fact that
solar power was even mentioned in such a speech. Clearly, a baby
step has been taken, if not a giant leap. So, what is the
President's grand plan?
>From an overall perspective, President Bush has issued an
Advanced Energy Initiative to begin changing our energy habits
to cleaner, non-foreign supply, based fuels. As is his habit,
the President has a Solar America Initiative as part of the
larger initiative. This is where we find the key solar
components.
With the Solar America Initiative, the administration has set a
goal of accelerating widespread acceptance of clean solar
technologies throughout the U.S. by 2015. Yes, it is a bit murky
in regards to the exact goal, but the Energy Department recently
clarified matters. According to the Energy Department, the goal
is to generate 5 to 10 megawatts of electricity in United States
by 2015. While this may sound impressive, 10 megawatts of energy
is barely enough to power two million homes. In comparison,
California alone intends to put one million homes on solar in
the next ten years. Put another way, the Solar America
Initiative isn't particularly impressive.
While the President appears to be paying lip service to solar
energy in this Initiative, it should be noted that he is due
more than a small bit of credit. First, he has put solar power
and other clean energy on the political table. Second, the
administration has taken major steps in other legislation to
provide tax credits for solar power and renewable energy
platforms. Those steps, not the Solar America Initiative, are
going to make a major impact on the promotion of solar energy in
the country. For that reason alone, the President should be
applauded.