SOLAR TODAY Blog

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

 Like a lot of folks, I felt let down by President Obama's oil-spill-and-energy-future speech on Tuesday. Eighteen months into the administration, I thought it was high time for a rousing call to specific action. I had hoped for something resembling the ASES Policy Recommendations. Instead we got a reference to the Waxman-Markey bill and a call for new ideas. I'm convinced that there are enough workable, mature and economically viable ideas for truly clean, renewable energy already on the table. I didn't like the implication that more are needed before any decisions can be made. It sounded like temporizing.

I grew up in Chicago, where Obama learned his politics. During the hours after the speech all my cynicism about Chicago's politicians came roaring back. Illinois is a centralized-power state. It mines coal downstate. With Commonwealth Edison, Samuel Insull literally invented the modern electric utility company in Chicago, based on huge coal-fired steam-turbine central power plants. Illinois produces about 10 percent of America's nuclear power -- after all, the reactor was invented at Stagg Field. Moreover, the two Chicago daily newspapers rank near the bottom among major American papers in the frequency and depth of energy reporting. This is not a state where renewable energy is top-of-mind for public officials. The state now claims about a gigawatt of installed wind power. That's a nice start, but cynics remember that when H.L. Mencken called Chicago "that Windy City," he was writing about its politicians, not its weather.

A couple of days later I feel better about the speech. Obama's leadership style within Washington has, in fact, been to negotiate quietly. Gail Collins, writing in the New York Times yesterday, pointed out that Obama never outlined specific policies for health care, either. He left that to Congress. However you feel about the outcome, the result was historically significant reform for the insurance industry.

Now we can hope for something similar regarding energy policy. This administration, through its distribution of ARRA funds for renewable-energy infrastructure, upgrades and research, has demonstrated energy bona fides in a way unprecedented since Jimmie Carter's policies cut oil imports by roughly 20 percent quickly, and by roughly half over the next few years. We should now work to get a Waxman-Markey equivalent through the Senate before the mid-term elections -- a bill that we can regard as a productive start.