President Barack Obama

 
Hardly a minute into his inaugural address, the 44th President of the United States of America said: “each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.” From the beginning of his campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama has evinced strong support for a shift away from traditional energy sources. His energy platform called for a RPS comprising these main goals:

• an investment of $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy, with the aim of spurring huge private sector growth
• 10% of our electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012, and 25% by 2025
• reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 through the use of a cap-and-trade system.

Ever since the young, ambitious, and totally unexpected Senator Obama started to make a serious bid for the Democratic nomination, supporters have been drawn to his energy and enthusiasm as much as to his politics. He seems to have the power to truly inspire people, a rare quality at any time and one that this country needs. Markets respond to confidence, after all. We can use this as an analogy for renewable energy in this country, even: a market that has been suffering from lack of confidence (and serious lack of investors) for years is suddenly receiving an influx not just of dollars, but also of hope.

In his inaugural address, President Obama went on to list many of the problems this country is facing right now and that need rectification. He placed emphasis again on renewable energy, specifically referencing solar power this time. As wonderful as it was to see a presidential candidate talking a good game about renewables, it’s something else entirely to hear our new President reaffirm his commitment to energy diversity by treating the subject with the same eloquent optimism he offers to health care, unemployment, and education. By including this in his inaugural address he made himself officially accountable for following through on his promises. And perhaps more importantly, he gave us all a reason to hope for real change in the coming years of his first term in office.

We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories…All this we can do. All this we will do.

- President Barack Obama, January 21, 2009