Super Eco

Photo credit: jetheriot, flickr

Moments ago President Barack Obama delivered his aggressive, “for everybody Earth Day agenda” at an Iowa wind turbine plant, where he pitched a critical combination of renewable wind energy, green collar job creation and a controversial carbon cap as the antidote to our failing economy.

In his official Earth Day speech, the President announced that his administration is creating the country’s first offshore wind and ocean current power plants. Coastal states like New Jersey and Delaware already have wind energy plants in the works, he said before a crowd in what used to be a Maytag appliance factory.

The plant was recently converted to a wind turbine factory, a fitting location for Obama’s push for Congress to pass climate change legislation that would pour $150 billion into the renewable energy sector over the next 10 years.

If more offshore and inland states embrace the White House’s clean wind power plans, wind could potentially power up to 20 percent of America’s electricity demand by 2030. Several coastal states aren’t warming up to the initiative, however.

"The nation that leads the world in creating new sources ofclean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy," Obama said.

In his speech Obama also called for:

• Increased use of nuclear energy, contingent upon finding safer ways to dispose of/store nuclear waste
• Congress to pass a landmark climate bill by December in an effort to boost America's clout at the upcoming COP14 summit (The bill is already stalling, with Republicans and Democrats, balking at how hard the legislation could hit their local economies.)
• Congress to pass a struggling House cap-and-trade bill by the end of the year (Critics of the bill, many of them representing industrial and coal manufacturing states, claim it will pass too much of the cost of electricity onto consumers.)