Obama hits oil slick in energy debate
President Obama met with 11 governors to try to get support for his energy policies, which would shift the nation away from fossil fuels. He's still got come convincing to do. Sarah Gardner reports.
President Obama speaks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors to discuss energy policy in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
More on Sustainability, Copenhagen
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: The politics of energy were front and center at the White House today. President Obama met with 11 governors, many of them from coal-producing states, trying to get them to sign on to his energy policies and shift away from fossil fuels.
Sarah Gardner reports from the Marketplace Sustainability Desk, it's not going so well.
SARAH GARDNER: Obama wants the country to use less oil and coal and more alternative energy. So, he's pushing hard for tax credits for solar and wind and loan guarantees for nuclear. He also wants Congress to repeal billions in subsidies for oil, gas and coal.
Coal state lawmakers are already decrying the proposed changes as a jobs-killer. Oil and gas companies are casting them as a new tax.
Rayola Dougher is with the American Petroleum Institute.
RAYOLA DOUGHER: It really will translate into less investment, fewer jobs, and especially fewer American jobs. And we think that's exactly the wrong way to go.
Obama hopes to win farm state support for his energy proposals by shoring up biofuels. Today he announced a new plan aimed at boosting biofuel production.
Matt Hartwig is at the Renewable Fuels Association.
MATT HARTWIG: The ultimate goal of the renewable fuel standard is in the year 2022 that the United States is using 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel.
Currently the U.S. produces only a third of that. Some environmentalists criticized today's biofuels announcement. They say the EPA underestimates the global warming emissions from corn ethanol.
I'm Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.
Comments
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From Wilkesboro, NC, 02/05/2010
When did it become important to call the President Mr. All I heard for the last 8 years was Bush this and Bush that. I never heard President Bush.
From Biddeford, ME, 02/05/2010
In contrast to what Mrs. Twomey has to say, I strongly disagree. The State of Maine has the potential to fuel and power the entire state with renewable resources. The problem with our state and many others for that matter, and on the grander scale of our country, is the inability for politicians (Deomocrats and Republicans alike) to get anything done. The president is trying his hardest to do what he thinks is right, but those in congress, with friends in high places, are unwilling to make a stand for the countries best interest. I am not Anti-American, but from small towns to the big cities something most be done.
From Biddeford, ME, 02/04/2010
The billions of dollars that will be spent in the name of renewable energy is absolutely insane.
My trash to energy incinerator is very old it is now applying for sixteen million dollars in the name of renewable energy. I could retrofit my whole community for this amount of money, People are lining up in my State to beg not to have their programs cut, we are cutting education, health care providers on and on and we are spending billions to polluters.
This policy is geenwashing America.
From Milan, MI, 02/04/2010
Mr. Obama's energy policy seems to be, with the sole exception of his refreshing support for nuclear power, precisely backward. Fossil fuels are vastly cheaper, more readily available, and more widely usable than the alternatives, which is why those are still called "alternative energy." My own state, Michigan, is almost entirely unsuitable for solar or wind power as anything except an expensive novelty. With the exception of nuclear power, this policy seems to be just another instance of standard liberal practice: subsidize whatever isn't working, and tax--which is to say, penalize--what is.
From NC, 02/04/2010
"... move away from fossil fuels..."
Perhaps this is laudable, but it is secondary to moving away from oil that comes from those who support terrorism.
From Houston, TX, 02/04/2010
I applaud the President's efforts to move away from fossil fuels, and it is interesting that the simple removal of subsidies for these oh-so-profitable industries has resulted in such a outcry. However, I fear that Mr. Obama (that's for you Selene Santos) is simly bought by a different group of interests, namely Vinod Khosla and the biofuels ilk. The effects of biofuel production have been well documented in Europe, which tried to switch for a period of five years, and not only are there more CO2 emissions in the process, but, more importantly, the production of biofuels created dramatic pressure on food prices. This is something that Americans felt slightly, when the new ethanol mandates came out under the Bush Administration. I love how this country is debating all these wonderful myriad solutions, biofuels, cap and trade, and the Europeans have not only tried it, but have substantial evidence it failed. There are only two real solutions: carbon tax, and switching to solar and wind power. That's where the heaviest investments are coming from in not only Europe, but China as well. America, once leader of the innovative world, is now the fifth grader trying to keep up with the ball.
From Greenville SC, SC, 02/03/2010
I cannot believe how disrespectful Ms. Gardner was on her story this evening. To have call the president simply by "Obama" and not Mr. Obama or President Obama was appalling to me. You may not like him, you may disagree with him but, you owe him respect because whether you like it or not he IS the president of the United States. I am a journalist and at this moment, very ashamed.
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