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Here at Focus the Nation we like to see steps taken towards cheap, clean energy. The solar panel installation at the White House is a step in further realizing climate change solutions. However, the path is still clear for further steps to be taken, which the administration can be a big part of by establishing more avenues for students, policy makers, organizers, and companies alike to channel into.
 
Monday, the Obama administration cleared the installation of new solar panels on the White House. The solar panels, both thermal and photovoltaic panels, will be up and running by spring 2011 and will serve to heat water and generate renewable electricity.
 
One could consider this a great leap in advertising the use of solar energy as well as promoting the shift away from traditional forms of energy (read: ‘dirty’ energy). By installing these solar panels, President Obama is taking steps towards reinvigorating clean energy leadership; an issue that as of late, seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of other debate congress has deemed more pressing.
 
In concert with the solar panel installation the administration has also signed off on the production of two new solar power plants in the California desert today. These new plants are just the first of seven projects to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, this year. When finished, the two plants are purported to power over 566,000 homes. By approving these plants, the administration is supporting the symbolic action of placing solar panels on the White House and encouraging the energy industry to strive for better.
 
The New York Times’ article “U.S. Military Orders Less Dependence on Fossil Fuels” highlights a more urgently vital need for renewable resources. Traditional fuel has been specifically targeted as a means of attack on troops in Afghanistan. Using renewable fuel sources is strategically viable, Ray Mabus, Navy secretary, states in the article, due to vulnerability of the ship while refueling. In this way, renewable energy could streamline our military by lowering cost, casualties, and carbon footprint.
 
The route to eco-friendly energy has long been paved with abstract ideas and heady literature pointing to a green utopia. Marking a new era for clean energy author, founder of 350.org, and Focus the Nation advisory board member Bill McKibben helped spur the call for solar panels on the White House in early September. While the offer was declined at first, grassroots organizing and online petitions circled the web as the media took hold of McKibben’s efforts. Students across the country will take part in this symbolic day of action on October 10th, and many will continue their passion for environmental issues with Focus the Nation Clean Energy Forums in February 2011. These students will develop their leadership skills to take charge as politicians, innovators, technicians, and storytellers for a clean energy economy. These events are just another mile post in the new dawn of change that has taken hold of the clean energy movement, one inspired by the people for the people.  
 
 
Read more about this topic from the Reuters article “The White House Goes Solar. Why Now?” and the article “White House Spurns Solar Panel” from the New York Times.

What is clean energy? And why do we need to focus on it? Let’s focus on energy literacy.

Where does your energy come from? It’s a simple question; however, most people do not explicitly know from what sources their energy is produced. The companies that cater to our energy needs are about as far as many understand energy to go. But where do these companies get the energy? On a broader scale we know that most of our energy comes from fossil fuels. “Fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—currently provide more than 85% of all the energy consumed in the United States,”  according to the Department of Energy.

It is important, now more than ever, to recognize how we attain these fossil fuels and the impact extracting, refining, and use has on our nation as well as the world outside it. Choosing to move beyond fossil fuels and into the market of alternative energy—wind, solar and geothermal to name a few—is a future we can achieve and Focus the Nation is here to help advance the dialogue.

In the last century, the discussion on energy has surrounded the traditional energy market, critical of its active capitalization of natural resources and its effects on the environment. It is easy to decry the energy industry on its environmental wrong-doings, and one can discuss the benefits of change, but the current standards are arguably attractive to the majority of the population. Electricity is cheap! Water is just a faucet away. And we can have heat whenever we want it. These are the conveniences of life that we have come to rely on and take for granted. We take long, hot showers because we can. We keep the thermostat dialed high and leave the house at a comfortable level because we can. Adding up these conveniences has allotted us a hefty carbon footprint. How do we tackle the convenience problem? Opinions offered have included legislation adding incentive to invest in alternative energy solutions. The scope of this solution, admittedly, is quite large; one that is time and involvement heavy.

For this, and other reasons, Focus the Nation is working towards civic engagement with Clean Energy Forums to answer these tough questions. Regarding efficiency, as a nation, we have slacked. With more and more empirical research tallying up the negative impacts of fossil fuel, we need an action plan. Focus the Nation, with partners across the country, is gearing up to take on the challenge of reinvigorating ideas on how to move forward into a future powered by an alternative energy industry.

The new alternative energy industry provides renewal for the U.S. manufacturing industry and the economy it lives in. Manufacturing the green industrial revolution will  need skilled engineers, entrepreneurs, policy makers and open up new markets for labor, stimulating a tireless stagnation that has plagued our current economy. There will be factories, plants, and engines to build. Energizing the manufacturing sector will lead to recapturing competition in a market where other countries have gone before us.

We must remember the implications of thinking green. We cannot go, like industrial revolutions before us, focused on the bottom line, but instead with an intentional vision for a nation more sustainably powered. Focus the Nation is excited to work towards that goal!