New Focus on New Energy

Obama in Mountain View, CA

Solar power has been an energy creation medium that has been around for years, being used for the first time in the early 20th century. The problem was that with the huge amounts of nonrenewable resources, over the years there was just no economic reason to pursue solar power to become more efficient. That may change majorly as of today after Obama's visit to Silicon Valley. The odd part about this was that he visited a Wal-Mart, as Silicon Valley Business Journal says, as opposed to the normal venue of Google or Facebook. He was there to commend Wal-Mart on their decision to add solar panels to all of their stores in order to create a  much more self-sufficient store. This also heralded Obama's newest plan to increase renewable energy, focusing on solar energy, which could be the push towards renewable energy the world needs.

There have been several other places where presidents have tried to increase energy production through renewable sources, and many missed opportunities to get some real force behind the movement such as in the immediate wake of 9/11. Right after that tragedy, he could have mobilized the great feeling of patriotism and the fear to leech the United States off the oil dependence that caused the growth of the Middle Eastern terrorist movement in the first place, as Thomas Friedman suggested. Obama is now proposing a new plan to make the country more green as whole, focusing on developing cheaper and more efficient forms of solar power. I really think that this time its been rolled out at the right time to actual get a lot of traction and progress. The most obvious reason is that we're really having problems with energy, as the amount of resources we have available to us goes down constantly, driving prices up. Most people notice this in gasoline, which isn't horrible, but I bet its going to get a critical level of support from the public who would rather not deal with rising energy costs. Obama has introduced this in my opinion too late, which is partially the fault of other presidents, but at least we're getting around to it before its too late. Many private companies have been pursuing this technology for years, but without a huge market necessarily. I believe that having the government planted firmly behind the initiative for renewable energy could jump start progress that has been laying idle right on the brink of discovery for years.

Obama visiting solar farm

As US News reports, the White House is kickstarting its campaign for clean energy with the addition of solar panels to the top of the White House after they were taken off in the late 1900s. This initiative is something that will actually work because it will have more than enough support from the public to become a legitimate movement to replace the source of where we get our energy.