Obama to go green, but push could be costly

31 Oct 2008, 2212 hrs IST, REUTERS

posted by Zaki Bernoussi

"We are not just facing an economic crisis unseen since the Great Depression; we are also facing a climate crisis, which we have never before seen in history. We must respond to both," said Gernot Wagner, economist with the Environmental Defense Fund in New York.

"And I will invest $15bn a year in renewable sources of energy to create five million new energy jobs over the next decade - jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced; jobs building solar panels and wind turbines and a new electricity grid..." said Obama. Because "there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy ... That's going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office."

"That has been a consistent theme throughout that as you bring on these new technologies there are jobs that go with them and that is the rationalization," said David Pumphrey, Deputy Director of an energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"But the reality is when oil prices fall and consumption falls and taxes falls, then subsidizing wind power becomes proportionately even more expensive. It' a big line item," said Kevin Book, Senior Analyst Energy Policy for Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Co. Inc.

"That $600bn will go a long way for buying stuff and it's four times as much stuff as Obama has talked about buying. So I don't know how much they are going to focus on the green economy but I do know they are going to look at environmentalism as a driver to taxation, because they have to."

I felt that in this article, the quotations were so very important and spoke for the meaning behind the whole piece. I decided to give you, the reader, the direct quotations because what better way to understand this issue than to hear it from the horses mouth.

Obama has made it a staple in his campaign to go find new resources for energy and to continue this fight even though the price of gas is now falling to a low level. Unfortunately, it seems that reality is a bigger obstacle than expected. The speculation is that these new resources will not be financially feasible and thus costly. Obama may be spinning his wheels with ideas of obtaining wind energy facility or hydro powered vehicles without diving deep in American taxation and funds.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Obama_to_go_green_but_push_could_be_costly/articleshow/3660020.cms