EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- Transcript: Today's Live Q&A With NSA Leaker, Edward Snowden
- 'Tip of the Iceberg': Senators Warn Far More Data May Not Be Safe
- Playing the Obama Bumper Sticker Game
- Intentional and Evil: Court Marshall Sexually Assaults Woman, Then Arrests Her When She Protests
- David Brooks, Tom Friedman, Bill Keller Wish Snowden Had Just Followed Orders
- Transcript: Today's Live Q&A With NSA Leaker, Edward Snowden
- Remembering Satyajit Ray’s Hirok Rajar Deshe: On Edward Snowden, Resistance and Inverted Totalitarianism
- The Terror Con
- Pentagon Bracing for Public Dissent Over Climate and Energy Shocks
- Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
Popular content
Today's Top News
Barack Obama: 'No' to Solar Panels on the White House Roof
Campaigner Bill McKibben says solar panels would demonstrate presidential leadership on climate change
A quest to get Barack Obama to shout his commitment to solar power from the roof tops - by re-installing vintage solar panels at the White House - ended in disappointment for environmental campaigners today.
Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, had led a group of environmental activists to Washington in a bio-diesel van hoping to persuade Obama to re-install a set of solar panels originally put up by Jimmy Carter.
The actual Carter-era solar panels - which weigh in at 55 kilograms and are nearly 2 metres long - are out-dated now. But campaigners had hoped that the White House would embrace at least the symbolism of going solar - much like Michelle Obama kicked off her healthy food movement by planting a vegetable garden.
"Clearly, a solar panel on the White House roof won't solve climate change - and we'd rather have strong presidential leadership on energy transformation. But given the political scene, this may be as good as we'll get for the moment," McKibben said in a Washington Post comment this morning.
A California company Sungevity had offered to equip the White House with the latest technology.
But the White House declined - twitchy perhaps about inviting any comparison to one-term Democratic president Carter in the run-up to the very difficult mid-term elections in November. The White House did send three staffers to meet the campaigners.
McKibben told reporters after the meeting:
"They refused to take the Carter-era panel that we brought with us and said they would continue their deliberative process to figure out what is appropriate for the White House someday. I told them it would be nice to deliberate as fast as possible, since that is the rate at which the planet's climate is deteriorating."
The White House offered up its own version of the meeting in a statement:
"Representatives from the White House met with the group to discuss President Obama's unprecedented commitment to renewable energy including more than $80 billion in the generation of renewable energy sources, expanding manufacturing capacity for clean energy technology, advancing vehicle and fuel technologies, and building a bigger, better, smarter electric grid, all while creating new, sustainable jobs...They concluded by reiterating our continued commitment to promoting renewable energy development."
Carter held a rooftop press conference in 1979 to show off the 32 solar panels and drive home a message to Congress that it was time to get America off imported oil. The panels were used to heat water for the White House staff mess.
The message did not take though, and the panels themselves did not even survive Ronald Reagan. The panels were removed in 1986 during roof repairs. They eventually ended up at Unity College in Maine where they were used to heat water in the student cafeteria until 2005 when they were retired.
The van carrying the solar panels is now parked a few blocks away from the White House and will be rolling again on 10th October as part of the 10:10:10 international day of action on climate change.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
23 Comments so far
Show AllThe Whitehouse roof must be free from any obstructions for security reasons.
The perimeter, sure, but there's a whole lot more roof there.
In any event, Obama is playing his political card. When will people stop being surprised that he's a political animal? Hell, when we we stop being surprised that anyone in Washington is a political animal? And how many times do we have to keep looking to them for help?
The answer, my friend...
What is a 'political animal'? A f en bastard? Right on!! And that is our man obombem all. Is your hope run out? Face it. You ben screwed. Gonna bend over for more? No problem -- just vote for any 'political animal' in Congress now.
The true security issues for the White House have nothing to do with the roof but the foundation which has been built on; blood money from the US oil and military empire. Nothing will threaten this dark alliance. Not even clear fact and reason, or assured destruction.
did something change since 1979?
were this the case... there would be no more deliberations... they would have just said so...
Thanks
Hey, Those Solar Panels make a good place for the SS to hide.
That's BS chuck.
That's BS Wide of Vision
Obama doesn't have an honest bone in his body. This is why he makes a great politician.
This November, vote for a third party. Show the Dems realize that they cannot take their base for granted and support progressive change!
"Obama doesn't have an honest bone in his body."
If he shills for BP but not for solar energy manufacturers such as the big one in Ohio working on turning the rustbelt green, refusing to accept the solar panels might be an honest exception.
Correct. His ACTIONS are absolutely honest, and consistently so.
It's only the WORDS you have to watch out for.
LOL
I think Carter"s old solar panels are the heros of this story... they will probably out live us all!
"by re-installing vintage solar panels at the White House"
What about the up to date solar panels that can deliver more for the energy? Never mind.
Those are two very different versions of the meeting. Which one is more believable? (yes, it's a rhetorical question)
And is the US the only place where conservation and concern for the environment, and science-based government policy is considered "Evil Socialism"?
Come to think of it, lots of little things, proven to work, that people around the world would call "common sense" (like the mandatory 5 cent fee for plastic grocery bags in Ontario - not to mention the way they pay for medical care) are considered "socialism" (and therefore, very, very bad) in the USA.
The assholes we have hired will still be talking when sea level rises up around their ears. On the other hand of course they and all other rich parasites have second and third and fourth homes on higher ground.
Will they help us when the shit hits the fan? If you need an answer look at New Orleans.
..
They are afraid that the solar panels would interfere with all of the advanced electronic gear they have installed on the roof that they use to monitor all of the squirrels and rabbits that make it past the White House fence and past the secret service!
Or it would make a really good heat source for a heat seeking missle! OOOOOPPPS, More State Secrets revealed!
It's an emblematic moment, as it was for raygun when he had them removed. A statement. This country is about oil ok? if it's not oil it's just not us. BP is us. No solar panels.
coal, yes. coal is good. mountain top removal, of course- another obomber emblem.
"The actual Carter-era solar panels - which weigh in at 55 kilograms and are nearly 2 metres long - are out-dated now."
The solar panels are not outdated. The technology has been mature for a century. It's in the public domain. The people can build these things in small workshops.
This isn't a side issue, rather it's front and center. Because the elites who occupy the Whitey House are there in part to propagate delusions, i.e. spread lies. One of the many lies elites spew is that we must endlessly "improve" technology while we endlessly "grow" the economy. These bogus ideas are designed to keep our noses to the grindstone as corporate slaves on BOTH the production and consumption sides of the over-heated, over-bloated economy.
Instead of looking at the Whitey House for symbolism or inspiration we should look at our own personal capacities to understand our world, including the physics of energy and how it connects into the bigger scheme. All the answers will come from within.
Clean Coal powers the White House - We don't need no stinking Solar - Anyway I am out of here in 2012 - This job sucks!
Your Current President,
Barack Obama
P.S. Please stop winning, That is my job!!!
If he doesn't want them can I have them?
My local energy company voted to increase their rates this winter even after receiving free electricity off the grid.