Barack Obama laid out his new energy plan today. David Roberts of Grist did some pre-speech musing on Obama’s proposal on Grist this morning saying that it appears to be ”a fairly bold proposal, worth cheering.”
Key points of Obama’s plan “to combat global warming and achieve energy security” include:
- Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the level recommended by top scientists to avoid calamitous impacts.
- Invest $150 billion over the next ten years to develop and deploy climate friendly energy supplies, protect our existing manufacturing base and create millions of new jobs.
- Dramatically improve energy efficiency to reduce energy intensity of our economy by 50 percent by 2030.
- Reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce oil consumption overall by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels of oil, by 2030
- Make the U.S. a leader in the global effort to combat climate change by leading a new international global warming partnership.
Obama’s full plan is available here and the text of his speech as prepared for delivery is available here. Maybe it’s just me, but I think all of the candidates have a long way to go to get up to speed. Back in June in a speech at the National Press Club, John Kerry challenged the Democratic Majority today to take bold approaches to solving our environmental crisis caused by Climate Change. Obama’s plan comes close, but not close enough. Brian Beutler weighs in calling Obama’s plan, “… extremely good. Exceptional in some places, slightly nebulous in others…”
Memeorandum has more buzz here.
Sphere: Related Content
An energy plan here, a health care proposal there, I’m waiting for someone to do something to stand out. I ceratinly can’t look at anyone and say that they are the whole package.