by Daniel J. Weiss a Senior Fellow and Director Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress.
During President-Elect Barack Obama’s transition, the Center for American Progress proposed a 10-point clean-energy agenda for the president and Congress <5> that would speed the economic transformation to a clean energy economy. A review of these items today finds that all were adopted or are working their way through the process. This is a startling achievement amidst the worst economy in 70 years <6>, two wars, and an opposition party disinterested in cooperation <7>. President Obama did much of what he promised, and he can do more in 2010 by cajoling Congress to do its part.
These achievements will have real world impact. By 2011, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, P.L. 111-5, will double the generation of renewable electricity from the wind, sun, and earth <8>. ARRA will also lead to energy efficiency retrofits in 1 million homes by 2012. And President Obama’s new fuel economy standards <9> would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil. Additional benefits will accrue as the president and Congress finish some 2009 clean-energy initiatives and additional efforts are launched in 2010.
Here’s a review of progress made by the president and Congress over the past year.
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Overall, President Obama’s first year included unprecedented successes and efforts to speed the transformation to a 21st century clean energy economy. In addition to launching the aforementioned investments, he overturned a number of energy decisions made by the Bush administration that ignored sound science while favoring big oil and other special interests.
His success was led by a clean energy all-star team, including Assistant to the President Carol Browner, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, and Science Advisor John Holdren.
http://climateprogress.org/2010/01/11/obama-energy-climate-one-year-in-office/#more-17309
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