The White House has installed solar panels on the First Family’s residence last summer, and President Obama announced more steps on this year’s Mother’s Day. To help generate more clean energy, waste less energy, and leave a cleaner, safer planet, Obama’s new policy will deploy more solar energy construction in both private and public sectors.
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| President Obama has a speech about solar power (Photo Credit: wikipedia) |
Jimmy Carter is a pioneering President who has been advocating solar energy since 1979. In 1985, President Reagan allowed tax credits enacted by Carter for people to install solar power systems. However, Carter’s solar panels on the White House’s rooftop were removed during maintenance without any replacement. After more than a decade, series of momentum called for bringing solar power back to the White House in 2010, and President Obama listened to them.
On May 9th, Mother’s Day, President Obama gave a speech (Video) in Wal-Mart, Mountain View, California. He announced a combination of commercial and federal pledges, two new efficiency rules which will be issued by the Energy Department on Friday, and training programs at community colleges across the country to help 50,000 workers to enter the solar industry. According to The Washington Post, Obama’s administration will devote US $2 billion to improving energy efficiency at federal building and to approve solar industry’s commercial building energy code. Those efforts indicate more than 850 MW of solar power and energy efficiency investment in more than one billion square feet of buildings.
Wal-Mart committed on the ceremony that it will double the number of on-site solar energy projects at its U.S. stores as a response to President’s vision of a sustainable future. Obama commented in his speech that: “More and more companies like Walmart are realizing that wasting less energy isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for business,” showing an improving cognition and applause to the idea of renewable energy.
President Obama mentioned in the speech that energy-related industries have created over 9.2 million new jobs amidst the worst financial and economic periods. As the costs of solar panels have fallen in the past few years, solar installation is potential of rapidly increasing by 500%, pointing a more vibrant market that will create more jobs as well as a better world.
“If we do our part right now to rebuild an economy and transition to a clean energy future, we will create new jobs, we will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we will leave our children with a better America and a better future,” concluded President Obama.