Firlapalooza

Although many regard former U.S. President Jimmy Carter negatively, depicting him as a leader who reduced the status of America in the world during his time, he did at least seriously consider alternative energy sources far more seriously than any administration since.  In the 1970’s - as now - the United States was overly dependant on fossil fuels, and prices for oil were suddenly spiking.  Carter attempted to address this at the time with several policies, via his newly-established Department of Energy - as a result, the number of power plants using oil as the energy source during his tenure went from 20% to 3%, auto-makers were required to build fuel-efficient, and he put much research money into alternative energy sources.

One of his major ideas was establishing a solar development program (“The Solar Energy Research Institute”), and tax credits were given to those who installed solar power panels on their home.  In fact, 35 kilowatts worth of solar panels were installed on the roof of the White House.  He appears to have seriously taken on the idea of spearheading innovation in this field, and likely saw the writing on the wall of the political and environmental consequences of oil dependance – and knew it was best to remove America from it, fast.  A study published by the government at that time indicated that 28% of the nation’s energy needs could potentially be met by alternative energies by the year 2000 if the current policies remained in place (and as of recently, solar/wind/hydroelectric/geothermal account for 8.1% of total electricity production).

As it went, Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, and although very much a leader in many other areas, his administration went on to quickly dismantle Carter’s vision for U.S. energy (causing the demise of many entrepreneurial solar start-ups).  As well, in what could be considered a gesture of token symbolism, the solar panels which Carter had placed on the White House in 1978 were removed part way through Reagan’s tenure (they are now at Unity College in Maine).

In a way, the removal of the White House solar power source is surprising, given the fact that Reagan was in his 20’s during the Great Depression, and would have been aware of the value of frugality.  As a strong leader with much charisma, he could really have been a powerful proponent to further advance the U.S. in that direction throughout the 1980’s.  (By the way, this just in: OPEC has advised that “gas prices will stay high.”)

Currently, portions of the White House have been powered by solar energy since 2002 (discussed here too), although only about 9 kilowatts, which at least is a (re)start.  It seems that some of Carter’s ideas are making a modest comeback by the current White House – as the cited article mentions, though there were some temporay incentives for encourging solar power usage in the 2005 budget, these provisions were removed recently.

I can conclude from all this that the 1970’s retro movement is starting to catch on everywhere.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008, and is filed under Environment, Political Machines. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. I reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.