US President Barack Obama has declared “a new era of energy exploration in America” and pitched his energy plan as a win-win for the economy and the environment.
He made the declaration when visiting Newton, a city with population 16,000 on Wednesday to mark Earth Day. He said the choice that the United States is facing is not between saving the country’s environment and economy, but between prosperity and decline.
“We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy,” Mr Obama said in his 35-minute speech. During the speech, he also laid out his vision for an energy-efficient future.
He renewed his call for Congress to close the “carbon loophole” by adopting a cap-and-trade system for reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.
Besides, he promoted wind and other renewable forms of power, saying that for the first time the Interior Department would begin leasing federal waters for offshore production of electricity from the movement of wind, waves and tides.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, the United States market for wind power is growing rapidly, and nearly doubled in 2008. The American wind power industry directly employs about 85,000 people today, which is a 70% increase from a year ago, the group reported. But the economic downturn has slowed demand.
Alternative sources of energy currently account for less than 3% of the energy consumed in the United States, but Mr Obama said that by 2030, that figure for wind power alone could jump to 20%.
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