Obama's energy goals

Tuesday night I went to a very politically active friend's house to watch the State of the Union. She took fall term off to run a campaign in her home district. Somehow, by the end of the night, I was one of three members and secretary of the Knox College Democrats, which hasn't been active in a few years.

I am pleased that President Obama proposed a goal of making 80% of the country's electricity "clean" by 2035... but, like many other environmentalists, am thinking "who is he kidding?!?!" While it may be possible, more likely it will not be made a real priority and fall by the wayside. Here are my main thoughts

-We have an archaic, inefficient energy grid. If we want to be sustainable, let's start there. Clean energy production will be no good to us unless we make distribution efficient.

-Is President Obama including "clean coal" in this 80%? Cause that's an oxymoron.

-How will we manage this financially and politically? The last few years have proven it's hard to get much of anything done, let alone something that will inevitably (and sadly) be seen as a "liberal" issue.

Keith Schnieder from Grist writes this: "Arguably the central provision of President Obama's state of the union address last night was the proposal to generate 80 percent of the nation's electricity from clean energy sources by 2035 -- including nuclear energy and "carbon capture and storage" coal technology. Getting there will take a miracle, the same sort of pie in the sky thinking that allowed our president to also present the daft notion of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail by 2035. This in a country that last built a great rail station over a century ago."

Read the rest of his article here.

Also read about the latest fast food debacle involving Taco Bell here.

Please give me your input on President Obama's State of the Union energy proposal!