Via elephant’s award-winning twitter stream: Obama uses 1st Oval Office speech 2 call 4 Clean Energy Future, Now http://bit.ly/cm7sOa #oilspill video
The BP Oil Spill was the subject of President Obama’s first Oval Office address. I liked the part about ceasing to send $1 Billion a day to foreign shores for our oil needs. About moving to a clean energy future, now. I didn’t like the vagueness. That said, as usual, politics is a lose-lose for our President—whichever party he or she belongs to—President Obama has already received criticism re the speech by Republicans and Libertarians who accuse him of taking advantage of this moment.
To that, I respond, Dammmmn Right. That’s like accusing FDR of socializing the auto industry so that we could build tanks and planes in preparation for WWII. This is another kind of war. It’s just as serious, and harmful to our way of life, our economy, and our security.
So, kudos to you, President Obama. Thanks for making our independent, clean, domestic energy future the subject of your first Oval Office speech. Now, we wait: for action. For as you said tonight, words are not enough. Not nearly. ~ed.
Video below.
Excerpts via NY Times:
Until now he has employed most of the tools of his office, imposing a deepwater drilling moratorium, traveling repeatedly to the region, firing an agency director and appointing a commission. He used a few more Tuesday night, summoning the cameras to the Oval Office, appointing a long-term recovery coordinator and demanding that the company responsible, BP, set up a multibillion-dollar escrow account to compensate the victims…That he would feel compelled to devote his first Oval Office address to the nation after 17 months to the spill, and not to the Great Recession or two actual shooting wars still raging overseas, only underscored the profound impact on his presidency. By this point in their tenures, his four most recent predecessors had all spoken from the Oval Office (Ronald Reagan had five times already)…
…he vowed to win “the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.”
The purpose, though, was to go beyond the immediate and make the case that the spill justifies his plans for energy and climate change legislation, a way of turning a political burden into a political weapon. He called on Americans to “seize the moment” to “end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels.”
“The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now,” he said. “Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash America’s innovation and seize control of our own destiny.”
For the rest, go to the NY Times.
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