Earlier this week, the newly reelected US President Barack Obama addressed the nation in the annual State of the Union address. It was the occasion for President Obama to keep his hard stance on climate on energy.
His previous speech during his second inaugural address had been a new hope for climate change. I stated at the time that I would grade Obama’s second term on five critical points. It seems my fourth point is on its way.
Will the acts succeed to the speeches ? I certainly hope so as Barack Obama presented ambitious climate plans on Tuesday.
After stressing the success of both wind and solar – “Solar energy gets cheaper by the year so let¹s drive costs down even further. “ and ” Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more.”– President Obama called for doubling US energy efficiency by 2030.
This takes place just a week after the publication of a report of how this could be done. The benefits of such a plan would be huge as the official website mentions ” over a million added jobs, a one-third reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, and a similar reduction in oil imports. “
Could the United States of America halve their emissions by 2030, just like the European Union ?
Treehugger provide some extensive extracts of the speech, and I really appreciate how climate is talked about :
But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense.
We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.
But what got every climate hawk excited is that President Obama threatened to bypass the Congress if it failed to act on climate change. Since this can be done and since Congress is intensely bribed – ooops, lobbied – by fossil fuels interests to prevent any action, this could be a winner.
As Climate Progress reports, President Obama is :
” on track to create 5 million clean energy jobs in the country, and his stimulus plan was packed with green job initiatives. Obama’s fuel efficiency standards alone will create 570,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs by 2030.
There is much to be done to help the US of A create all these jobs, slash its pollution and so on. One of them would be to stop giving up to eight billion each years to Big Oil.
To conclude : be sure that I will keep you posted on how the world’s largest economy and second biggest greenhouse gases emitter is moving forward on climate.
