Obama to shelve cap-and-trade, pushes green NRG

Last night's Presidential press talk was a moment for the global warming wonks like myself. First, I got to hear over and over that the President considers climate change/pollution/renewable energy to be one of his top three issues, and hear the issue presented as a pillar of economic recovery. Second, I got to hear a member of the media ask President Obama about how determined he is to pass a cap-and-trade bill for greenhouse gases.

Though the New York Times this morning says that Obama has indicated he is willing to shelve the bill (from the President:"The bottom line is, is that I want to see health care, energy, education and serious efforts to reduce our budget deficit."), what we also heard from the President last night is his dogged determination to get it passed, and to reinvent the engine of the economy. We also heard the president include for the first time many members of the media like the Black and Latino presses, that typically are not heard. This decision is inclusive, but more than that, allows the President to reconstruct a narrative for the public that is not dominated by the media cabal. As the New York times noted, the President did not take answers from mainstream papers last night. And as many noted the previous evening, the President did not preside over the annual Gridiron dinner by and for the press. What you have seen the past week is an attempt by the president to speak directly to the people on issues that he is going to be hammering over and over. And luckily, one of those issues is of interest to us here.

Quotes from the President's press conference on renewable energy/clean energy:

• We invest in the renewable sources of energy that will lead to new jobs, new businesses and less dependence on foreign oil. We invest in our schools and our teachers, so that our children have the skills they need to compete with any workers in the world.
• At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led us to a narrow prosperity and massive debt. It's with a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest. And that's what clean energy jobs and businesses will do all across America.
• What I've said here in Washington is that we've got to make some tough choices. We've got to make some tough budgetary choices. What we can't do, though, is sacrifice long-term growth, investments that are critical to the future, and that's why my budget focuses on health care, energy, education, the kinds of things that can build a foundation for long-term economic growth, as opposed to the fleeting prosperity that we've seen over the last several years.
• I've said that we've got to have a serious energy policy that frees ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy...When it comes to cap-and-trade, the broader principle is that we've got to move to a new energy era, and that means moving away from polluting energy sources towards cleaner energy sources. That is a potential engine for economic growth. I think cap-and-trade is the best way, from my perspective, to achieve some of those gains, because what it does is it starts pricing the pollution that's being sent into the atmosphere. The way it's structured has to take into account regional differences. It has to protect consumers from huge spikes in electricity prices. So there are a lot of technical issues that are going to have to be sorted through. Our point in the budget is: Let's get started now. We can't wait. And my expectation is that the Energy Committees or other relevant committees in both the House and the Senate are going to be moving forward a strong energy package. It will be authorized. We'll get it done. And I will sign it. OK?
• [about the President's budget] The bottom line is, is that I want to see health care, energy, education and serious efforts to reduce our budget deficit...what I said was that I haven't seen yet what provisions are in there. The bottom line is, is that I want to see health care, energy, education and serious efforts to reduce our budget deficit.
• Now, none of us knows exactly what's going to happen 6 or 8 or 10 years from now. Here's what I do know: If we don't tackle energy, if we don't improve our education system, if we don't drive down the costs of health care, if we're not making serious investments in science and technology and our infrastructure, then we won't grow 2.6 percent, we won't grow 2.2 percent. We won't grow.
• But I'm – look, I'm not going to lie to you. It is tough. As I said, that's why the critics tend to criticize, but they don't offer an alternative budget. Because even if we were not doing health care, we were not doing energy, we were not doing education, they'd still have a whole bunch of problems in those out-years, according to CBO projections. The only difference is that we will not have invested in what's necessary to make this economy grow.
• Now, the alternative is to stand pat and to simply say, we are just going to not invest in health care. We're not going to take on energy. We'll wait until the next time that gas gets to $4 a gallon. We will not improve our schools. And we'll allow China or India or other countries to lap our young people in terms of their performance. We will settle on lower growth rates, and we will continue to contract, both as an economy and our ability to – to provide a better life for our kids.
• I think that when it comes to domestic affairs, if we keep on working at it, if we acknowledge that we make mistakes sometimes, and that we don't always have the right answer, and we're inheriting very knotty problems, that we can pass health care, we can find better solutions to our energy challenges, we can teach our children more effectively, we can deal with a very real budget crisis that is not fully dealt with in my, in my budget at this point, but makes progress.