The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

Yesterday afternoon, Senator Barack Obama wrapped up a speech unveiling the second chapter of his energy plan at the Portsmouth Public Library.  Obama detailed the first part of his plan in Detroit where he focused on the transportation sector and endorsed raising fuel economy standards.  Today, Obama added to this by addressing R&D into new fuels, energy conservation, and international cooperation.  Read more at the new Energy section of Obama’s website.

Obama entered the press-filled room following a video introduction that included video clips of every president since Nixon proclaiming unfulfilled energy promises.  Obama began his speech by criticizing the recent international climate negotiations and referencing attendee opinions who felt that “when it comes to the global debate on climate change, our country is struggling just to stay relevant.”  Obama assured the crowd that America’s irrelevancy was not due to inaction among Granite Staters and applauded the 164 towns that passed the New Hampshire climate change resolution.

The substance of the speech came when Obama detailed a $150 billion dollar ten year program to expand a “next generation” of biofuels, invest in low emissions coal plants, and develop “safe and secure nuclear energy.”  The “next generation” refers biofuels beyond ethanol.  ”The truth is” Obama stated ”corn ethanol is neither the perfect nor the permanent answer to the energy challenge.”  Obama explained that “this is why we have to invest in the next generation of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.”  His statement that ”the struggling paper mills in New Hampshire would be back in business if they could use wood to produce biofuels” elicited applause from the NH crowd.

Obama stressed that research into cleaner coal is necessary because we need to stop “pretending that our nation’s most abundant energy source is just going to go away.”  He did pledge to ban the production of new “traditional” coal plants.

To aid in commercializing clean technologies produced by the $150 billion dollar R&D program, Obama pledged to establish a Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund.  The fund will “provide ten billion dollars a year for five years to get the most promising clean energy technologies off the ground.” 

Obama shifted focus to discuss energy efficiency, specifically how he would reach his goal of reducing national energy use 50% by the year 2030.  Like many of the other candidates, Obama described measures to improve the efficiency of the federal government and pledged that all new federal buildings will be 40% more efficient within the next five years.  He promised to phase out traditional inefficient light bulbs by 2014.

Obama brought the speech full circle and concluded where he began: a discussion of international climate leadership and cooperation with a pledge to re-engage the U.N. framework.  Beyond this, Obama will create a Global Energy Forum to set international binding emissions targets.  Obama concluded by stating: “I want the leaders of Europe and Asia, Africa and South America to point to our diplomacy and our engagement and our ingenuity as the light that led us toward a new energy future in our time.”

Obama’s new energy statements provide details for many of the non-legislative areas that were foggy until today’s announcement.  It will be interesting to see if Obama is ready to push this issue with his Democratic competition and include these details on the stump.

Watch the viedo of Obama