 | This article mayrequirecleanup to meet Wikipedia'squality standards. The specific problem is:organization. Please helpimprove this article if you can.(July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| ||
|---|---|---|
Personal Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senator from Illinois 44th President of the United States Tenure
  | ||
Theenergy policy of theObama administration was defined by an "all-of-the-above" approach which offered federal support for renewable energy deployment, increased domestic oil and gas extraction, and export of crude oil and natural gas.[1] His presidency's first term was shaped by the failure of his signature climate legislation, theAmerican Clean Energy and Security Act, to pass, and then climate and energy disasters including theDeepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 and thenHurricane Sandy, which took place during the 2012 election. In his second term, Obama lifted the ban on crude oil exports and approved liquified natural gas exports; his planned regulatory approach to reducing greenhouse pollution in the electricity sector, theClean Power Plan, was blocked by theU.S. Supreme Court.[2]
On April 13, 2015, in honor of the 40th anniversary ofEarth Day, the Obama Administration website summarized the initiatives that the administration was taking or had undertaken:[3]
- A $3.4 billion Smart Grid Investment Grant (part of theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), which would affect 49 states and has the potential to reduce electricity use by more than 4% by 2033,[4]
- The launch of theAdvanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) project under the Department of Energy and in collaboration with the Department of Defense, modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,[5]
- A new report on how the federal government can help create a "self-sustaining homeenergy efficiency retrofit industry"[6]
- New efficiency standards for home appliances,[7]
- A new National Fuel Efficiency Policy that will apply to cars from model years 2012-2016 and will ultimately require cars to have an averagefuel efficiency of 35.5 mpg by 2016,[8]
- Three measures to increase the production of biofuels: a renewable fuels standard, biomass crop assistance program, and a biofuels working group. The President has also created an interagency task force to help create a federal strategy forcarbon capture and storage, and[9]
- A newEnvironmental Protection Agency ruling (called the Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule) requiring the reporting ofgreenhouse gas emissions by major emitters in the United States.[10]
Many of the Obama administration's were undertaken as a result of theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and many of those investments were specifically inclean energy. According to a report byClean Edge: The Clean Tech Marketing Authority, the recovery act included more than$70 billion in tax credits and direct spending for programs involving clean energy and transportation.[11]
The White House website stated that the recovery act provided more than$80 billion in clean energy investments:[12]
•$111 billion for asmart grid to connect rural energy-producing sites with cities, and smarter use of energy within homes,
•$55 billion to weatherize low-income homes,
•$41.5 billion to reduce the federal government's own energy bill by making federal buildings more energy efficient,
•$62.3 billion to support state and local energy efforts,
•$6 billion to train people for green jobs, and
•$29 billion to promote investments in battery storage technologies.
Clean Edge lists other recent policies of the Obama Administration to support the clean energy sector in the U.S.:[13]
•Extending the investment tax credit for solar energy,
•Extending the production tax credit for wind energy,
•Allowing utilities to participate in income tax credits, and
•Allowing renewable energy developers to receive government grants instead of tax credits.
In his2011 State of the Union Address, President Obama called for a goal, "By 2035, 80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources."[14]
In January 2017, President Obama published an article arguing that private-sector incentives will help drive decoupling of emissions and economic growth. He called this the irreversible momentum of clean energy, which he argued would occur independently of the near-term policy choices of the Trump presidency.[15]
One of President Obama's suggestions for cleaner energy options was the use of nuclear power plants. But after the2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and its power plants, the$54 billion in loan guarantees the president has asked Congress to approve seem doubtful.[16]
Concerns have grown over the nuclear plants in California because, similar to Japan, they are also located on fault lines. But Per Peterson, former Chair of the nuclear-engineering department at the University of California, Berkeley has reassured people that the fault lines lack the same danger and potential of disaster as Japan.[17]
In a speech on March 31, 2010 atAndrews Air Force Base, President Obama outlined a newenergy security plan.The president's plan includes initiatives such as raisingfuel efficiency standards. He also announced a decision to double the number of hybrid vehicles in the federal government's fleet, and made a decision to expanddomestic offshore oil and gas exploration in Alaska, the southern and mid-Atlantic Coast, and parts of the Gulf of Mexico offshore from Florida.[18]
Following up on Obama's speech, the White House blog released a statement on how the administration plans to boost domestic energy production, diversify America's energy portfolio, and promote clean energy innovation with three tactics:
Since 2008 American oil production has increased by 70%, mostly due to drilling on private or State lands (not Federal).[20]
TheCenter for a New American Security (CNAS) wrote recommendations on how to improve upon the energy security plan. In 2009, CNAS and its author, Christine Parthemore "convened a group of scientists, investors, business executives, academics, nonprofit representatives, defense professionals, and federal, state, and local officials to discuss how to implement President Obama’s energy and climate security goals."[21]
CNAS recommended three strategies for the administration to help move forward with the energy security plan:
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
