Obama Unveils Program To Develop Renewable Energy Offshore
23 April 2009 - 4:24AM
Dow Jones News
President Barack Obama said the government will authorize the
leasing of federal waters for renewable energy projects, part of
the administration's sweeping agenda to spark a new clean energy
industry and ease the country's reliance on oil.
"On this Earth Day, it is time for us to lay a new foundation
for economic growth by beginning a new era of energy exploration in
America," Obama said Wednesday, according to remarks prepared for
delivery.
Obama traveled to Newton, Iowa, to mark Earth Day and tour a
former Maytag plant that is now used to produce towers for wind
energy production. The White House says the town is an example of
how clean energy investments can create jobs and help
recession-battered areas remake themselves. Trinity Structural
Towers employs dozens of former Maytag workers in Newton, according
to the administration.
Obama's remarks there provided a tour of the White House's
energy agenda, from its plans for a cap-and-trade program to tax
credits for fuel-efficient cars. He also unveiled the offshore
program, in which federal waters would be used to generate
electricity from wind and ocean currents.
Obama said the initiative will pave the way for major new
investments in clean energy. "There is enormous interest in wind
projects off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware, and today's
announcement will enable these projects to move forward," he said,
adding that a full use of wind energy can produce up to 20% of the
country's electricity needs by 2030 and create as many as 250,000
jobs.
"As with so many clean energy investments, it's win-win: good
for environment and great for our economy," Obama said.
As the president traveled to Iowa Wednesday, a trio of top
administration officials pressed lawmakers to move forward with
legislation capping greenhouse gas emissions. Their testimony at a
Congressional hearing follows last week's finding by the
Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases endanger
public health and welfare, and faces fierce opposition from
Republicans worried about the cost of the plan.
"There is no question that we have to regulate carbon pollution;
the only question is how we do so," Obama said. "I believe the best
approach is through legislation that places a market-based cap on
these kinds of emissions."
House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the
proposal a "national energy tax that will destroy countless jobs
and raise energy prices on families and small businesses already
struggling during this recession."
In Newton, Obama linked administration-backed energy plans with
long-term economic prosperity and job creation, arguments the White
House uses to counter GOP complaints about cost.
"The choice we face is not between saving our environment and
saving our economy - it's a choice between prosperity and decline,"
Obama said.
"We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can
become the world's leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow
climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs
working to prevent its worst effects. We can hand over the jobs of
the 21st century to our competitors - or we can confront what
countries in Europe and Asia have already recognized as both a
challenge and an opportunity: The nation that leads the world in
creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads
the 21st century global economy."
While Obama called for more renewable energy, he also said
domestic production of oil and natural gas should be increased, and
called for the safe use of nuclear power.
He also said General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC,
struggling to create viability plans under a government deadline,
face "difficult challenges" and need to build "the cars of the
future."
"We must create the incentives for companies to develop the next
generation of clean energy vehicles - and for Americans to drive
them," Obama said.
-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256;
henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com