Whatever Happened to Concern for Foreign Oil Dependency ?

I'm not sure what you mean. You mean Obama didn't single-handedly cut gas prices? I think - or, I would hope - that people understand the basic dynamics of gas prices enough not to expect that.

As far as his effort to do something about oil dependency, he's done a lot. Look at the stimulus package.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/obama-signs-stimulus-packed-with-clean-energy-provisions/

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* A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.

* $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.

* $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).

* $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.

* $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”

* A three-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects).

* The option, available to many developers, of turning their tax credits into direct cash, with the government underwriting 30 percent of a project’s cost.


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Now you might disagree with the benefit of "green jobs" training or a lot of other things. You might disagree with the stimulus bill as a concept. You might disagree with the potential impact of these initiatives.

But to say Obama hasn't done anything to follow up on his campaign for a more progressive energy policyis simply false.

 

He's doing fine?

By what standard -- the standard set by Jimmy Carter or George W.?

He's done absolutely nothing - well except come up with a bunch of rhetoric and hot air.

He's mangled the healthcare overhaul.
He's done nothing to move us even an inch closer to being weeded off of foreign oil.
He's done nothing to spark the economy and stem the tide of job loss.
He's done nothing to encourage industries to create new jobs.
He's continued to allow the debt to go through the ceiling.
He's done nothing to stem the annual deficit.
Oh but wait, he might make it possible for gay people to be open in the military, so what a great president he must be.....

Yeah, I can see what you mean, he's doing fine..... :

 

And, of course, when he does do something, you ridicule him for that, too.

 

At this point, you are simply willfully ignoring the actual numbers being presented to you by other posters.

But, I have to remember, you were all aboard the Obama train during the election. I keep forgetting what a huge supporter you were.

 

No, I am not - those numbers are meaningless - they are billions of dollars that are nothing more than earmarks for special interests. They aren't going for meaningful research and more importantly they aren't being spent on an actual solution.

If he wants to do something -- he'll take those billions back and put them into building nuclear reactors and windmills and developing those alternative forms of energy which we already know can and are working in different places around the globe and even some places here in this country.

 

Yeah, well, we agree on the nuclear thing.

 

All I am saying about the energy policy is this - we have solutions already, we need to develop those solutions and stop throwing money down some fictional "research" tube.

We can and should continue to research, but our priority at this point in time should be to move forward with the technology we already have.

 

We don't have good solutions. Wind and solar power remain significantly more expensive than the fossil fuels they are meant to supplant. So I'm OK with dollars going to research.

Unfortunately, I don't see how the bulk of manufacturing for wind turbines and solar panels, etc., won't be outsourced to cheap labor markets, anyway, as much as I'd like to see Michigan and Ohio transformed into the Silicon valley of alternative energy.

 

It's too bad they did not get those wind turbines up and running on Nantucket before Ted Kennedy's passing.

He was a great champion of wind power.

 

Gas is $3.24 at the Shell by my house.

 

Only $2.58 here.

 

$2.25 in my hood, with the Kroger discount.