Well it’s all over but the handoff. A planet collectively sighs with relief, and can now laugh a little less nervously at SNL’s Sarah Palin skits.
But with the economy disassembling itself, the environment has not been the stuff of big speeches in this election. So how will Obama’s ‘Change’ manifest itself for the green movement?
I came across a great blog post this morning by Adam Stein of TerraPass. Here he quotes from a couple of Obama interviews that seem to indicate the President Elect has a lot of grey matter at work. Take this:
“…the fact that the engine for economic growth for the last 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20, and that was consumer spending… And what that means is that just from a purely economic perspective, finding the new driver of our economy is going to be critical.
… to completely revamp how we use energy in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security and drives our economy, that’s going to be my number one priority when I get into office.”
Sounds like good news for green energy entrepreneurs. Here’s another clip:
“… if we’re going to be serious about renewable energy, I want to be able to get wind power from North Dakota to population centers, like Chicago. And we’re going to have to have a smart grid if we want to use plug-in hybrids then we want to be able to have ordinary consumers sell back the electricity that’s generated from those car batteries, back into the grid. That can create 5 million new jobs, just in new energy.”
How could this all affect Canada? With British Columbia’s potential for hydro, wind and wave energy, we could be a key part of a Western North American green power grid. But only if our policy-makers can look beyond our current role as dirty-energy and clean-water bulk wholesalers and invest in some quick R&D for green technology.
But for now, remember that Obama’s quotes here are off-the-cuff interviews, not scripted speeches. A President that even knows that plug-in hybrids can be connected on a smart grid has got to be good for our green priorities.
I wonder if he can unicycle?
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