Obama's Leadership on Alternative Energy

Barack Obama walked into the belly of the beast in Detroit today and told the automakers something they should have heard a long time ago: Nobody wants to buy your cars because they cost too much to power.

"For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," he said, according to a text of his remarks. "And whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could’ve saved their industry." In his speech, Mr. Obama proposed stricter fuel economy standards, greater availability of tax credits to consumers who buy hybrids or other ultra-efficient vehicles and subsidies to help automakers pay health care expenses in return for greater investment in advanced technology.

The health care-for-hybrids legislation was the one signature legislation Obama proposed in the 109th Congress. I thought it was pretty brilliant, and it was typical of Obama in that it sought to find areas of agreement among competing actors and make compromise. The plan is that America will help remove the crushing burden of health care legacy costs for US automakers if they'll just get off their ass and innovate, using those savings to step up alternative energy research and production.

Hilariously, Arnold Schwarzenegger rushed to put out a press release showing that Obama mentioned him in putting forward his full energy and climate change initiative, as if the Terminator owns the global warming issue or something. He'd do well to actually implement AB32 in California and stop putting out press releases every time someone mentions his name.

In fact, there's been significant global movement on coming up with plans to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The document made clear that nations have the technology and money to decisively act in time to avoid a sharp rise in temperatures that scientists say would wipe out species, raise ocean levels, wreak economic havoc and trigger droughts in some places and flooding in others.

Under the most stringent scenario, the report said the world must stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2015 - eight years from now - at 445 parts per million to keep global temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees over preindustrial levels.

Delegates said the approval of the report should conclusively debunk arguments by skeptics that combatting global warming was too costly, that it would stifle development in poorer countries, or that the temperature rise had gone too far to change.

"If we continue doing what we are doing now, we are in deep trouble," said Ogunlade Davidson, the co-chair of group responsible for finalizing the report this week.

Delegates hailed the policy statement as a key advance toward battling global warming and setting the stage for an even stronger international agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse emissions when it expires in 2012.

3.6 degrees in temperature is still a lot and would still wreak havoc. But the report shows that the technology is here today to at least slow things down; the only thing that isn't is commitment and leadership. That's why Obama's speech in Detroit today is so important. I don't need to hear about what needs to be done; the people who have been holding out for decades do. I do wish hee added a bit more of a sense of urgency to his pitch; for Obama, the question is always "Will he hold to principle when tested and resisted?" I'm not saying he won't, it's just that his instinct for compromise is well-known, and I'm hoping he doesn't just compromise the benefit out of any proposal. But this speech is a reassuring first step.

UPDATE: John Edwards had a very good response on this subject in a YouTube to DFA supporters (he's always the first one out of the gate on these; his campaign team really understands how to reach the netroots).