From the Guardian:
It has been said that Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps now in the eyes of 350.org supporters, he’s “worse than we thought”. Carter was the first to put solar panels on the White House. Being nothing more than an icon, they didn’t last.
And here we have a more recent example of iconic posturing:
350.org “community solanizer” Bill McKibben writes:
Disappointment at the White House, Pride in the Movement
For the last three days, I’ve been sitting at my kitchen table in California cranking out press releases, calling reporters, and generally playing “pit crew” for Bill and our Put Solar On It road trip. It’s been a great ride: tens of thousands of people have shown their support for putting solar back on the White House, the crew had great stops in Boston, New York, and D.C., and we managed to secure a meeting with the Administration to discuss putting solar back on the roof.
As we expected (but secretly hoped wouldn’t be the case), the White House didn’t commit to … well, anything. We tossed them a big, fat soft ball to hit out of the park and they just watched it float on by.
===============================================
So much America’s “first green president”. Solar isn’t even mentioned here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/energy-and-environment
The irony, it burns.
UPDATE: some people wrongly got the idea that I hate solar power, which is not the case at all. I put solar on my own home, see the story here.
-Anthony
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PV is a complete waste of time for the overwhelming majority of people and anyone who puts them on their roof is just playing the PR game. If you/they want to use solar, then do something sensible and go for solar water (pre)heating. WITHOUT SUBSIDY these have always had a payback of 2-10years making them viable cost saving measures for most people.
But if you really want to use solar then:-
Build a house with large south facing windows and smaller north – with a roof that extends so as to shade them in summer and prevent overheating
But as no one makes money from the way houses are built — and with no money to be made, there’s no one shouting for it to happen — which just shows you the only reason people do these Green things is because someone makes money from it, irrespective of how “Green” it really is.
Stupid is as stupid does. Ain’t that right Mr President?
Well, I think he knows that ‘Green’ isn’t very profitable or good for the economy.
The presidential limo and the security crew can’t drive electric or any other energy other than gas and diesel due to the amount of weight that has to be moved; the amount of distance that has to be traveled and the lack of special fuels required for the new breed of cars.
They are not going to take public transportation or ride a bike.
They don’t need the cash for clunker program.
All the above applies to you and I.
This doesnt make sense. ?
The solar panels ( for heating water) installed during the Carter era were removed under Reagan because of leaks . However replacements were put in during GWB’s time along with panels for the in ground swimming pool
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/ww2.htm
“Yes, we can”!
No, you didn’t…
Mate of mine travels around Australia in a converted bus for 11 months of the year and the other month he spends at home refurbing in the winter 🙂
Anyway, he purchased a couple commercial grade solar panels for 20grand and they provide enough power to keep his batteries charged to keep his fridge, tv and internal lighting running…but not a lot more. He has a really nifty set up but it was expensive and the kind of money your average sub prime home owner won’t have sitting around!
Mailman
Anthony, you are beginning to undermine the value of your excellent site and give a massive propaganda coup to the warmists who claim that skeptics are a right wing group backed by the hard right in the USA. Statements like “It has been said that Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps now in the eyes of 350.org supporters, he’s “worse than we thought” have no place on a site this. Many people would gently suggest that Dubya, Ronnie and other Presidents were also pretty bad, but such beliefs should not be promoted on a Science site such as this. Remember, you audience is international and growing and this ( hopefully) is not a site funded by the tea party. If we promote right, or left wing politics you will inevitably start to lose the very people we need to keep on board.
ghostwhowalksnz says:
September 12, 2010 at 12:35 am
This doesnt make sense. ?
The solar panels ( for heating water) installed during the Carter era were removed under Reagan because of leaks . However replacements were put in during GWB’s time along with panels for the in ground swimming pool.
Now that WAS smart. Now who did that? ☺
BTW, maybe in this case better to not say “solar panels”, all will fill in with “electricity”, use “solar collector” instead — bout four times the efficiency and a fraction the cost and they do just that, collect heat, pure solar heat, no electricity involved.
Obama sure is a disaster. I’m wondering why Biden was sent to New York on the anniversary of 9/11. Surely it should be the President leading the memorial day at Ground Zero, the site of thousands of deaths? Did he stay in Washington so he didn’t have to face the Islamic centre controversy protesters?
[There is a thread for 9/11 comment. ….. bl57~mod]
Gareth,
People are free to think whatever they want, but anybody paying attention to the polls in the US these days (and in some other countries that were formerly enamored of Mr. Obama), even liberals and the hard left is agreeing that Obama is a huge disappointment, at the very least. Latest polls show that more of the electorate is determined to vote GOP this year than at any time since polling was invented, including during Carter’s term in office. So Anthony wasn’t being partisan, he was observing the reality that exists outside the MSM reality distortion zone.
Jimmy Carter was actually a pretty good president, all things considered. He deregulated the airline industry, deregulated trucking, set the stage for the deregulation of oil, and brokered the Egypt-Isreal peace agreement. Obama will do worse to follow “W” rather than Carter.
As for “green” energy initiatives, every president since Nixon has declared our addiction to oil to be a national crisis. The global warming scam is a tool to try to get America to decrease its dependence on oil before oil actually does become a scarce commodity. It’s not likely to happen as oil is just too cheap and plentiful. But America does consume a lot of oil. We are the world’s third largest oil producer and yet cannot provide half the oil we consume. A world war divided along the lines of oil producers versus oil consumers could devastate America’s global economic hegemoney and America’s enemies know it. A headstart on energy technology alternatives to oil may very well be our salvation.
Fear mongering on the world getting warmer? Bad idea. But encouraging development of energy technology to compete with oil? Not such a bad idea.
After visiting http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2100, it’s apparent the commenters know a WHOLE LOT more that the panel. How do we get the switch to take place?
This story illustrates my greatest issue with the green movement – the overwhelming emphasis on image and awareness, instead of quantifiable achievement. It is hard seperate the good technologies and processes from the chaff of stock hustlers and sideshow barkers.
The greens need to reach an awareness of their own: they have oversold their concerns into fearmongering and haven’t supplied realistic solutions to the “problems” they identify. More honest research and an enormous amount of engineering needs to done – before they should work on anymore glossy PR campaigns and silly demonstrations. I can’t take them seriously until they get boring and practical.
“Campaigner Bill McKibben says solar panels would demonstrate presidential leadership on climate change”
Very interesting how liberals attempt to get what they want. Watch how they frame questions and statements. Instead of discussing the validity of solar panels on the roof of the white house, McKibben shifts the onus onto the other person (demonstrating presidential leadership) and assumes that his request is totally reasonable.
It can be seen here too:
‘It has been said that Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps now in the eyes of 350.org supporters, he’s “worse than we thought’
They did the same thing with gay marriage. They needed to create opposition for it to became a rights issue. Very cunning indeed.
I think the last quote was from Anthony, my mistake.
The implication is “Do as I say, not as I do, Green Policy”.
On a related point re wind see Andrew Gilligan’s article in today’s Sunday Telegraph about the Danes falling out of love with wind. See letters also.
Cheers
Paul
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
I think we’re all missing the point. Regardless of how we may feel about Obama on a political basis, he should be praised for having made a cost-benefit analysis (possibly factoring in the aesthetic impact of garishly awful-looking SPV panels on the roof of a national icon like the WH) and having come to the $$-based conclusion that, for a building with the WH’s power needs, a suite of SPV panels would be nothing more than a cynically cosmetic gesture.
What Obama (and the ideologues at 350.org) can’t ever afford to admit is that technologies that can’t compete commercially without massive taxpayer subsidies are a white elephant that should be abandoned, not propped up by politically-motivated waste. And I say that as a guy who, unlike a lot of so-called environmentalists, has actually put his money where his mouth is. I recently, after much research, installed a Velux solar hot water preheating system on my south-facing roof. It keeps a 120-gallon tank at a lovely 165F in daytime, and only drops to about 120F at night (the heating capability is much higher; during installation, a stuck valve caused the tank to climb above 240F. We got a little nervous). Coupled with a high-efficiency natural gas boiler and computerized hydronic in-floor radiant heating, it’s a welcome boost to my home’s heating and a boon to my energy bills – particularly since I live in Ottawa, where (a) it’s really cold in the winter, and (b) electricity rates are about to skyrocket thanks to our idiot ‘liberal’ government promising to shut down coal-fired generating stations, pumping billions of ym tax dollars into wind-power boondoggles, and refusing to allow any new nuclear generating stations to be built.
The secret to ‘green power’ is simple: if it costs less to generate than conventional power, the world will beat a path to your door. Solar hot water heating is teetering on the verge of being cost-effective right now. SPV generation is not. If your system is not cost-effective, then you might as well burn dollar bills to heat your house. We should be applauding Obama for understanding this basic economic truth (if that’s what really happened and it simply wasn’t a case of “Geez, I don’t want anybody banding on the roof for the next four months”).
Now, if only his administration – and the one running MY province – would apply the same economic logic to corn-based ethanol, wind turbines, large-scale SPV installations, tidal power, etc., etc…
‘Do as I say not as I do’ type as I knew he would be. Follows in Gore’s footprints. Solar power is fine if you need a small amount of power during the day. None of these so called green energy projects, like solar and wind, would be used without massive subsidy from the taxpayer. In the UK the wind energy people make no money from power generation only from government handouts. I think that the taxpayer has had enough.
Surely wind power would be a better bet? I mean – look at the Obama’s tie flying in the wind.
Obama finally makes a decision based on objective evidence. Hooray!
Bill McKibbon has too much time, and other people’s money on his hands.
He’s lucky White House security didn’t gang tackle him.
What if he had put new solar panels. We would have seen dear Anthony or Steeve (and most of you guys) all over him for doing so – be honest…
The administration (any one of them) is a perfect target to say about anything (it’s always a no win situation) when you don’t have something smart to put in a blog. That was a good exemple where the poster should have taken a night or a day off from the keyboard.
REPLY: Actually, I put solar on my own home, see the story here. So I’d have no issue at all. -Anthony
Or they could put a nice wind generator up there by Old Glory.