Obama's on the Fast Track

In Obamas recent speech at Georgetown University he showed how courageous he is in his fight for new sources of energy in the US—as gas prices are rising, he is still sticking to what he believes will help America in the long-run. Obama really hit a key point as he expressed the necessity for the US to rid itself of its long-run dependency on oil. His pledge to reduce oil imports by a third by 2025 is a tremendous step in pushing the clean energy industries forward and putting fire under the belly of new innovations.

Obama is promoting natural gas, renewable biofuels, fuel-efficient vehicles, high speed rail and mass transit expansion, and nuclear energy to replace the fossil fuels and oil we are currently surviving on. I feel that most of these would tremendously help the environment but disagree that nuclear energy should be used. I say this because we do not know if it will be safe for generations to follow. America has a tendency of just approving things and claiming them as safe and then down the line everyone finds out that in fact they are detrimental to society. This is just like some pharmaceutical drugs that claim to be very safe and then ten, twenty years down the line they create serious problems for people. We do not want to jump into using nuclear energy. Also Obama seeks for more oil to be drilled in the US but this seems pretty contradictory to all of his other claims of ridding ourselves of dependency of a resource that is running out—oil and wanting more clean energy sources.

I like that he highlighted the push for a new energy sector would create more jobs because this is what Americans want to hear. It is good to frame the move towards clean energy as boosting our economy, and catching up to the rest of the world, not just focusing on environmental concerns. This being said, I felt Obama could have focused a little more on the environmental concerns surrounding the use of fossil fuels and oil.  We are not just fighting for this because of economic reasons but also for the sake of the environment.

I believe Obama is definitely on the right track as he has already made major steps in efforts to turn the environmental situation and oil dependency around. This has been the first time in a long time that a President is taking action on these concerns. This summer the government will introduce fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks, and will soon spread to cars. Overall, Obama is making great strides in moving one of the biggest contributors to environmental degradation in a direction that will enhance economic and environmental well-being.