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A Solar Victory and Military Defeat at the White House
Oct 07, 2010
Five things are certain about solar panels going back on the White House roof:
* They won't generate nuclear waste;
* They won't be targets for terrorists hoping cause an atomic holocaust;
* They'll be working many years before any new atomic reactor could be built;
* They'll deliver usable heat and electricity far more cheaply than new nuclear plants;
* They'll make the US that much freer from the oil addiction that fuels our disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The great unknown: could this solar power zap Team Obama with the courage to confront the nuclear/military madness now destroying our nation?
These new panels go far beyond what Jimmy Carter installed and then Ronald Reagan tore down. Carter's $30,000 rig was installed in 1979 to heat water, which it did.
Reagan's 1986 tear-down defined his assault on the green power industry on behalf of King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas).
We at Greenpeace marched with many others in 1991, at the launch of the first Gulf War, demanding George H.W. Bush reinstall the panels. He wouldn't.
We asked the same of Bill Clinton. He wouldn't either.
George W. Bush did quietly install some solar features on the White House.
After a first refusal, Obama says he'll now re-instate solar water heating to the White House roof, AND will add photo-voltaic cells that will generate electricity.
Team Obama is clearly responding to the anger of the Democratic base, which expects the White House to be truly green.
This includes ferocious opposition to atomic energy. The administration recently granted $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for a double-reactor scam in Georgia. Barely underway, the project has already emitted $100 million in hikes for the state's ratepayers. The builders are now asking for an extra $1 billion. Endless delays and cost overruns are as certain here as they were for the "first generation" of reactors, and as are now being endured in Finland and France.
But Steven Chu's Department of Energy may want still more guarantees for yet another disastrous reactor project in Maryland, Texas or South Carolina. And Obama has pushed Congress to hand more money to a failed industry efficient and reliable only in wasting billions of public dollars.
Can we dream that the new solar panels will zap some green sense into Obama's energy planners?
Likewise the military. Obama's magic opportunity came when he "evaluated" escalating the war in Afghanistan, which is now officially ten years old, the longest in US history.
But through weeks of deliberations, he met only with "experts" in suits and uniforms. He never talked with his once-ardent and hopeful supporters in the grassroots movements for peace, justice and environmental preservation.
Now we read, from Bob Woodward and others, that the generals refused to even provide the President with the exit strategy he requested.
Who runs this country? The civilians or the military?
Obama's tragic decision to escalate robbed the nation of the resources needed to rebuild our economy and employment.
So the Democrats now stumble blind into mid-term elections, void of a vision that shines with any real hope for an economic turn-around.
Restoring solar power to the White House is a tiny but tangible step toward the Solartopian future necessary to our survival.
Now must come the definitive demise of atomic power. Imagine what an amazing green-powered Earth we'd now occupy had all those billions not been squandered on that failed technology.
And we need a fearless focus on the gargantuan military budget that cripples our moral and fiscal core. Imagine what Obama's Nobel Prize speech -- and mid-term election prospects -- might resemble had he begun that process rather than jumping in to the Afghan quagmire.
We've been a quarter-century fighting to restore those solar panels to the White House roof. We seem to have won that one.
Given what we've seen of this administration, it might seem delusional to think it would seriously confront the nuke/military madness.
But we are winners as well as dreamers. And without that happening, we don't survive.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Harvey Wasserman
Harvey Wasserman is an activist and author. His first book "Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States" was published in 1972. Harvey edits www.nukefree.org.
Five things are certain about solar panels going back on the White House roof:
* They won't generate nuclear waste;
* They won't be targets for terrorists hoping cause an atomic holocaust;
* They'll be working many years before any new atomic reactor could be built;
* They'll deliver usable heat and electricity far more cheaply than new nuclear plants;
* They'll make the US that much freer from the oil addiction that fuels our disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The great unknown: could this solar power zap Team Obama with the courage to confront the nuclear/military madness now destroying our nation?
These new panels go far beyond what Jimmy Carter installed and then Ronald Reagan tore down. Carter's $30,000 rig was installed in 1979 to heat water, which it did.
Reagan's 1986 tear-down defined his assault on the green power industry on behalf of King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas).
We at Greenpeace marched with many others in 1991, at the launch of the first Gulf War, demanding George H.W. Bush reinstall the panels. He wouldn't.
We asked the same of Bill Clinton. He wouldn't either.
George W. Bush did quietly install some solar features on the White House.
After a first refusal, Obama says he'll now re-instate solar water heating to the White House roof, AND will add photo-voltaic cells that will generate electricity.
Team Obama is clearly responding to the anger of the Democratic base, which expects the White House to be truly green.
This includes ferocious opposition to atomic energy. The administration recently granted $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for a double-reactor scam in Georgia. Barely underway, the project has already emitted $100 million in hikes for the state's ratepayers. The builders are now asking for an extra $1 billion. Endless delays and cost overruns are as certain here as they were for the "first generation" of reactors, and as are now being endured in Finland and France.
But Steven Chu's Department of Energy may want still more guarantees for yet another disastrous reactor project in Maryland, Texas or South Carolina. And Obama has pushed Congress to hand more money to a failed industry efficient and reliable only in wasting billions of public dollars.
Can we dream that the new solar panels will zap some green sense into Obama's energy planners?
Likewise the military. Obama's magic opportunity came when he "evaluated" escalating the war in Afghanistan, which is now officially ten years old, the longest in US history.
But through weeks of deliberations, he met only with "experts" in suits and uniforms. He never talked with his once-ardent and hopeful supporters in the grassroots movements for peace, justice and environmental preservation.
Now we read, from Bob Woodward and others, that the generals refused to even provide the President with the exit strategy he requested.
Who runs this country? The civilians or the military?
Obama's tragic decision to escalate robbed the nation of the resources needed to rebuild our economy and employment.
So the Democrats now stumble blind into mid-term elections, void of a vision that shines with any real hope for an economic turn-around.
Restoring solar power to the White House is a tiny but tangible step toward the Solartopian future necessary to our survival.
Now must come the definitive demise of atomic power. Imagine what an amazing green-powered Earth we'd now occupy had all those billions not been squandered on that failed technology.
And we need a fearless focus on the gargantuan military budget that cripples our moral and fiscal core. Imagine what Obama's Nobel Prize speech -- and mid-term election prospects -- might resemble had he begun that process rather than jumping in to the Afghan quagmire.
We've been a quarter-century fighting to restore those solar panels to the White House roof. We seem to have won that one.
Given what we've seen of this administration, it might seem delusional to think it would seriously confront the nuke/military madness.
But we are winners as well as dreamers. And without that happening, we don't survive.
Harvey Wasserman
Harvey Wasserman is an activist and author. His first book "Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States" was published in 1972. Harvey edits www.nukefree.org.
Five things are certain about solar panels going back on the White House roof:
* They won't generate nuclear waste;
* They won't be targets for terrorists hoping cause an atomic holocaust;
* They'll be working many years before any new atomic reactor could be built;
* They'll deliver usable heat and electricity far more cheaply than new nuclear plants;
* They'll make the US that much freer from the oil addiction that fuels our disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The great unknown: could this solar power zap Team Obama with the courage to confront the nuclear/military madness now destroying our nation?
These new panels go far beyond what Jimmy Carter installed and then Ronald Reagan tore down. Carter's $30,000 rig was installed in 1979 to heat water, which it did.
Reagan's 1986 tear-down defined his assault on the green power industry on behalf of King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas).
We at Greenpeace marched with many others in 1991, at the launch of the first Gulf War, demanding George H.W. Bush reinstall the panels. He wouldn't.
We asked the same of Bill Clinton. He wouldn't either.
George W. Bush did quietly install some solar features on the White House.
After a first refusal, Obama says he'll now re-instate solar water heating to the White House roof, AND will add photo-voltaic cells that will generate electricity.
Team Obama is clearly responding to the anger of the Democratic base, which expects the White House to be truly green.
This includes ferocious opposition to atomic energy. The administration recently granted $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for a double-reactor scam in Georgia. Barely underway, the project has already emitted $100 million in hikes for the state's ratepayers. The builders are now asking for an extra $1 billion. Endless delays and cost overruns are as certain here as they were for the "first generation" of reactors, and as are now being endured in Finland and France.
But Steven Chu's Department of Energy may want still more guarantees for yet another disastrous reactor project in Maryland, Texas or South Carolina. And Obama has pushed Congress to hand more money to a failed industry efficient and reliable only in wasting billions of public dollars.
Can we dream that the new solar panels will zap some green sense into Obama's energy planners?
Likewise the military. Obama's magic opportunity came when he "evaluated" escalating the war in Afghanistan, which is now officially ten years old, the longest in US history.
But through weeks of deliberations, he met only with "experts" in suits and uniforms. He never talked with his once-ardent and hopeful supporters in the grassroots movements for peace, justice and environmental preservation.
Now we read, from Bob Woodward and others, that the generals refused to even provide the President with the exit strategy he requested.
Who runs this country? The civilians or the military?
Obama's tragic decision to escalate robbed the nation of the resources needed to rebuild our economy and employment.
So the Democrats now stumble blind into mid-term elections, void of a vision that shines with any real hope for an economic turn-around.
Restoring solar power to the White House is a tiny but tangible step toward the Solartopian future necessary to our survival.
Now must come the definitive demise of atomic power. Imagine what an amazing green-powered Earth we'd now occupy had all those billions not been squandered on that failed technology.
And we need a fearless focus on the gargantuan military budget that cripples our moral and fiscal core. Imagine what Obama's Nobel Prize speech -- and mid-term election prospects -- might resemble had he begun that process rather than jumping in to the Afghan quagmire.
We've been a quarter-century fighting to restore those solar panels to the White House roof. We seem to have won that one.
Given what we've seen of this administration, it might seem delusional to think it would seriously confront the nuke/military madness.
But we are winners as well as dreamers. And without that happening, we don't survive.
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