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Obama promotes clean energy; GOP hits Dem spending

6:00 AM 10/02/2010
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Wind, solar and other clean energy technologies produce jobs and are essential for the country’s environment and economy, President Barack Obama said in promoting his administration’s efforts.

The president used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, a month away from congressional elections, to charge Republicans with wanting to scrap incentives for such projects.

“That’s what’s at stake in this debate,” the president said. “We can go back to the failed energy policies that profited the oil companies but weakened our country. We can go back to the days when promising industries got set up overseas. Or we can go after new jobs in growing industries. And we can spur innovation and help make our economy more competitive.”

Part of the House GOP’s recently released “Pledge to America” calls for freezing spending from last year’s stimulus bill. The stimulus included $90 billion for clean energy projects ranging from electric vehicles to solar loan guarantees, although a big chunk of the money has already been obligated or spent.

Obama cited a solar power plant breaking ground in the Mojave Desert this month thanks to government incentives.

“With projects like this one and others across this country, we are staking our claim to continued leadership in the new global economy,” Obama said. “And we’re putting Americans to work producing clean, homegrown American energy that will help lower our reliance on foreign oil and protect our planet for future generations.”

Republicans disputed Obama’s criticism, saying they support investments in renewable energy technologies.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took aim in the GOP radio response at government spending, saying Democrats are “maxing out the national credit card on a failed stimulus bill and a government-run health care bill.”

He criticized Democrats for recessing Congress until after the elections without acting to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire in January. Obama and Democratic leaders want to extend the tax cuts only for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000, while Republicans and some rank-and-file Democrats want to extend tax cuts for the wealthy as well, a costlier proposition.

“Whenever they were asked about this looming tax hike, they just blamed the Republicans,” McConnell said. “They said that Republicans will be to blame for some people getting a tax hike because we didn’t think anyone should get a tax hike. … The fact is, the best way to help individuals and small businesses and the economy is to give them all the certainty that their taxes won’t be going up at the end of the year.”

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Energy, Environment, Government business and finance, Government policy, Green technology, Industrial technology, Industries, Mitch McConnell, Politics, Technology, United States, Utilities
  • libertyatstake

    Why wasn’t the address on a jumbotron at the One Union, err Nation, rally? Missed opportunity to fire up the troops, Barry – and remind them to pick up their trash, of course.

    http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
    “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

  • ladylove

    if desperation is not in the air, I don’t know what is.

    each and every time politicians are behind in the polls, they use the same old ploys, abortion, jobs, energy, etc, etc.

    this man has had almost two years now, and suddenly he acts like he cares.

    who is he fooling, no one I hope.

    certainly not this democrat.

    it is time we all

    VOTE AMERICAN, BY AMERICANS, FOR AMERICA.

  • Tess_Comments

    It is not time to go full force after expensive endevors. Now is not the time to demand clean energy. Work on fixing the economy. The general public cannot afford the cost of a full blown effort towards Clean energy.

  • Jamesb

    “Clean Energy” and “Climate Change” and all the rest of that farsical snow job and fantasy are merely “code words” for global governance and enrichment of prepositioned liberal elites like Gore, Soros, Clinton, Franklin Raines and Obama.

    They want to SUCK tax $$$$$ out of YOUR wallet and deposit it in their off-shore bank accounts. Reject this garbage out of hand.

    If it has merit let private investors make it work. If’s there’s a profit in it – they will build it – and we will adopt – if it make fiscal sense.

    Giving people $7500 of taxpayer $$$ to buy a GM electric Volt car doesn’t make sense.

  • ojfl

    This is wrong in so many levels. What part of the GOP “all of the above” policy does not make sense to the president?

  • gatortarian

    It is not the job of the government to promote any industry over others. The stated goal of the Dept of Energy was to create a synthetic fuel to compete with oil and reduce our dependency on imports. The result has been an even greater dependence.

    • chuck in st paul

      You’re so right. Everyone forgets why DOE was originally created. Just like any other agency it has morphed and grown way past any of the original reasons for its existence. The reason is classic – it couldn’t fulfill its stated goals. We never did get a synthetic fuel industry that was price competitive with hydrocarbons. So, they just willy-nilly changed their charter. Now they consume billions of dollars every year with zero to show for it.

      Now does anyone not understand why the T.E.A. Party movement is so popular? Government is like The Blob. It consumes everything it sees and grows and grows and grows. Where’s Steve McQueen when you need him? (*grin*)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Keren--Or-Shalom/100000819551729 Keren Or Shalom

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    What is Politically Correct is Mathematically Wrong!

    _______________________________

    - Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?

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  • erick1740

    Green energy is the equivalent of the tooth fairy, obama is a hapless idiot.

    • doncicciofitipaldi

      That sure is right buddy! Electricity is produced by the tooth fairy as well. We should stick to what we know…oil and coal. Who needs clean energy? We need to pollure more. The more we pollute, the richer we are. God (aka the Tooth Fairy) will take care of planet earth. Conervatives are brilliant.

      • SamAdams25

        Have you been an idiot all of your life, or are you taking lessons?

        If we were to utilize our own resources, natural gas, drill in ANWAR, and build more nuclear plants, we could cut our dependency on foreign oil by 50% and create thousands of jobs to boot. In the meantime, you can do all the R&D you want to on bio-fuels and solar and wind and all those other sources that are now cost prohibitive. When your “green energy” alternatives become economically viable, THEN we can start converting.

        The trouble is that the “Green Lobby” has way too much influence on government to get anything done. They will be the ones, along with government bureaucrats, to prevent the building of the so-called “smart grid”. For all of the Democrats’ carping about the “party of no”, the “greenies” are the true party of no.

        When we have a government that has the cajones to relegate the “greenies” and the corrupt unions to their relative constituency and stop giving them un-earned power, then we can get on with real progress, not the progress towards socialism and redistribution of wealth that the “progressives” (socialists) advocate.

        • des1

          “Have you been an idiot all of your life, or are you taking lessons?”

          Is there a choice for “All of the above”?

      • chuck in st paul

        Oil and gas fired generators do not pollute… unless you’re one of the believers in The Satanic Gases. In which case you should off yourself and all your family as you are exhaling Polar Bear killing pollution. [/snark]

        Solar is NOT currently viable in 95% of the US as a replacement generator. New materials not commercially viable yet have upped the conversion rates to around 30% which IS the required value for economical solar, which still won’t work well in snow country but can be useful in the Southwest (particularly). Just not yet.

        In the mean time Barry is sending billions of US dollars to foreign countries so that they can drill for oil while we are forbidden to drill for ours. Hypocracy anyone?

        Why aren’t we constructing 200 nuclear plants across the country right now? The Eurogreens love ‘em. We’ve got plenty of fuel, we just need to reprocess all the spent fuel rods we’ve got lying around. But wait… Jimmy Carter wrote a fiat that says we can’t. So write another one or pass a law that says we can. duh. By the time those plants become in need of a rebuild in 20 to 30 years your ‘clean’ energy research should have created their economical replacements. duh (again).

        I guess I’m too dumb to appreciate all the nuances. But then Engineers are like that.

      • grayzel

        I will ask you as I have done may others before you to list the number or solar collectors you have on your home, what type of automobile you drive, do you use a solar powered refrigerator or stove, do you heat your home with solar, how do you mow your lawn, how many windmills do you own and how many people do you know who work in the green energy field? As with all the others I have asked that support the magical green energy god I know you will not answer. You sir are just another hypocrite writing about something you know nothing about and a person who will not spend his own money to get his free energy.

        • ladylove

          best to ask Little donny if his mother does all this, and if she owns all these things.

          and isn’t it the truth, each time people like little donny, get asked, they never answer.

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