Will Obama Meet His Solar Deadline?

Source: 350.org

Will President Obama meet his self-imposed deadline to get solar panels back on the roof of the White House by the end of this spring? On October 5, 2010, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the Obama Administration would be returning solar panels to the White House roof. (President Carter installed solar panels on the roof in 1979 only to have them removed by President Reagan a few years later.) This after a lot of cajoling by the good folks at 350.org who found the exiled Carter Solar Panels in Maine and personally drove them down on a biofuel vehicle from Maine to the White House. They were rebuffed repeatedly by the White House until Secretary Chu made the surprise announcement.



The team at 350.org launched a campaign in 2010, “Put Solar On It,” challenging world leaders to install solar at their presidential residences and then follow up with real legislation. Some elected officials seized the opportunity. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil announced a new 50kw array for India’s presidential palace. In October, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives took the challenge a step further, actually getting up his roof to help install the solar panels himself. President Obama made a promise but with Spring 2011 ending on June 21, a week from today, Will Obama Meet His Solar Deadline?

The  answer maybe NO given that the administration is delaying putting out rules for coal plant emissions, calling for expanding oil drilling through nothing less than the President's weekly web address, and increasing fracking.

Yet, we cannot be silent bystanders. We've got to keep putting pressure on the administration, and we know that that is something that the administration likes and believes is the best way to get results.

So take action here and here.

Hold President Obama's feet to the fire.