Today for Earth Day president Obama gave a speech on energy. Here is the presidential energy speech transcript. The speech is directed towards the emotional side and tries to be inspiring, it is a motivational talk. It provides a few facts for proposed legislative and tax changes, most but not all of which are good, but ... He hides the size of the energy issue we are facing and he is silent on the implications.
The government will provide funding of $15 billion each year for ten years to develop clean energy including wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, and clean coal technology. Compare that to the cost of the current bail out of the collapsing financial system that some experts estimate at $15 trillion. The government spends 0.1% on new energy in comparison to rescuing the financial sector. That says something about the importance of energy in the government strategy. It is not crucial if it is 0.1% or 1%, the point is that it is vastly out of proportion.
In the second part he negates that current US politics are broken. In my opinion he is wrong on this. Our society and economy is first of all in a structural collapse, not a financial one. And the structural collapse just like the financial one were permitted and induced by past and recent politics. Politics is broken.
We need a change in energy production/consumption and above all in politics.
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