Why has renewable energy disappeared from our energy debate?

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 14, 2010 · 9:42 AM PDT

2010/06/14 · 09:42

President Obama spoke recently about the need for a clean energy future. He repeatedly mentioned "clean energy" in the speech and urged Congress to take action on the energy bill. When he actually mentioned concrete steps to achieve a clean energy revolution, the best he could come up with was natural gas drilling and nuclear energy expansion. He mentioned the blueprint for the senate version of the bill had included numerous Republican ideas, though he did not mention the Republicans would not actually cosponsor the bill. Within the bill itself, there is little support for renewable energy or real energy reducing steps. It simply aims to transform our from an oil-based economy to a nuclear/coal/natural gas based economy. This is not necessarily a good improvement. If we are going to spend this much money investing in new energy sources, the sources should at least be worth the investment.

Obama is flexing his consensus building muscles now. He comes from the Senate, a historically bipartisan institution that has recently devolved into partisan bickering much as the House has. He clearly does not understand there is no use supporting bad ideas if nobody is going to reward you for your concessions. Republicans do not want an energy/climate bill passed. This is quite evident. Instead of trying to peel back one or two votes, why not craft a very robust bill and force Republicans to filibuster it, much as Harry Reid did with financial reform. Furthermore, the labeling of this bill as the American Power Act does more to damage the process than to build consensus. It sidesteps the entire issue of global warming, one of the most pressing issue of our time. If global warming was not such a pressing issue, natural gas and coal would be good solutions to our energy crisis. In our current environment, however, they are far from it.

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

Make YOUR voice heard!

Comments are closed on this story.