The future of energy

On February 25th 2009, The New York Times published as article about the energy plans of president Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/opinion/26thu1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

The author seems optimistic, but remembers the similarities between Mr. Obama's start and former president Bush's start. He also remembers that it has been "four decades since Richard Nixon urged Congress to free the nation from its dependence on foreign oil", but we all know how much America relies on foreign oil now. This is probably a pretty safe stance, hoping for the best but expecting what we have come to expect.

Unfortunately I see very little in the way of a plan, whether it is details on Obama's plan, or comments on any sort of plan. The most I find in the way of what we will use to 'defeat global warming' is the obligatory phrase "renewable energy sources like wind and solar". Even if Obama doubles the amount of solar and wind energy this country produces, where would that bring the total? 5%? It would be a step in the positive direction, but we need a bigger step.

The other point of this 'new' source of energy is that it can help to improve the economy, which is probably true and a very valiant effort. This point should appeal to a wide variety of either grad students or technical workers.

As for the last sentence in this editorial, the country has been challenged for the past 40 years. Mr. Obama will have to do better to actually change something.