GLOBAMA SUN

Go Solar, Mr. President
Jeremy Schere, September 20, 2010 (Matter Network via Reuters)

"Recently, outspoken environmentalist Bill McKibben tried and failed to convince the Obama administration to reinstall a solar panel on the White House roof that Jimmy Carter had originally put there in the late 1970s…[but] Carter's solar panels are more than 30 years old…[President Obama] should indeed install a solar system on the White House-a brand new one showcasing the latest and greatest in solar PV technology."

"That's the thrust of a citizen action campaign called Globama, led by the solar energy company Sungevity, which has offered to donate and install a photovoltaic array on the White house at no cost…Before deciding, Obama might consider what happened…in 1979 [when] Jimmy Carter unveiled a thermal hot water solar system bolted to the White House roof…"

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[President Carter, 1979:] "A generation from now…this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people-harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil."

"…Carter's solar panels have in fact become a museum piece. In 1986, then-president Ronald Reagan had the panels removed during routine White House roof maintenance and never bothered replacing them…[T]he system was donated to environmentally minded Unity College, in Maine…[One] is on display at the Carter Presidential Library…[It is] a cautionary tale. Any president who puts some attention-grabbing, trendy technology on the roof of one of the world's most famous buildings is merely providing his successor the opportunity to score political points by tearing the thing down."

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"But there's another side to the story…For Carter in 1979, the solar panels were a symbolic gesture meant to garner support for his proposed $100 million "solar energy bank" initiative, with a goal of generating 20 percent of U.S. power from alternative energy sources by 2000. To fund the plan, Carter urged Congress to pass a "windfall profits" tax on the domestic oil industry and approve subsidies to encourage [solar] developers…[It] worked. Stories and op/eds in the days following the rooftop press conference were largely supportive. The few dissenting voices criticized Carter for not doing enough…[which] was characteristic of mounting interest in clean, renewable energy technologies during the energy-panicked 70s.

"…[T]he Iran hostage crisis scuttled both Carter's bid for reelection and his plans for a solar-powered America. Reagan's landslide victory in 1980, his hands-off approach to energy policy (he tried, unsuccessfully, to dissolve the newly established Department of Energy) and falling oil and gas prices largely quashed public interest in solar energy…[S]hould Obama go that route? …[Y]es…[T]he time is ripe for Obama to throw the full weight of his support behind solar and other renewable energy technologies…[T]oday's energy challenges are all too real, and many people around the world seem ready to envision an energy future beyond fossil fuels…[P]utting a solar array on the White House won't solve our energy problems…But it would be a potent symbol…And given the fact that our many energy-related problems are here for the long haul, it won't be so easy for Obama's successor to rip the panels down."