Dear Friends,
Is President Obama going to miss his own deadline for re-installing solar panels on the White House roof?
Last October, after a campaign led by 350.org, the Obama Administration committed to installing a new set of solar panels on the White House roof by the end of Spring 2011. With ten days until June 21st, the first day of summer, the roof is still bare.
Last fall, 350.org rescued a solar panel that President Carter had installed on the White House roof (only to have it removed by President Reagan) from its exile at Unity College in Maine and drove it back to the White House with a request that Obama install a new set.
The administration refused at first, but a month later Secretary of Energy Chu said at a conference, “I’m pleased to announce that, by the end of this spring, there will be solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House.”
We know that the pressure from the 40,000 of you that signed our original petition made a real impact last fall. Now, we need to show the administration that we won’t let them off the hook.
The White House will try and brush this deadline under the rug unless we can show that the public is still paying attention and eager for President Obama to put solar panels back on the roof (and then tell us how he will put solar on rooftops across America).
When we asked President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives to install a new set of solar panels on the roof of his presidential residence, he got up there just a few weeks later and helped install the 48 new panels himself. So, we’re confident that if the White House really wanted to make a strong push for renewable energy, they could have the panels up by June 21st, the first day of summer.
After all, a little home improvement isn’t nearly as complicated as bailing out the banks or saving the auto industry. And according to our friends at the solar company Sungevity, the cost of the installation would be earned back with savings on the electric bill in the first five years, so an installation makes fiscal sense, as well.
We don’t need President Obama to put on a tool-belt and climb on the roof like President Nasheed, but we do need him to start leading on climate and energy. Putting up a new set of solar panels is no replacement for an ambitious climate policy, but it would be an important sign that the administration acknowledges that it needs to do more to support clean energy.
Click here to add your name to the letter we’re sending to President Obama.
Many thanks,
May Boeve
P.S. This is a situation where a large, public groundswell can really tip the balance, so we need to spread the word far and wide. Can you share the message with a couple of clicks on Facebook and Twitter?
I really thought this would be a turning point in the commitment to renewable energy va-area but not yet I guess, maybe in the future this will change. I’d like to really see a huge change in the commitment of not just DC renewable energy but virginia renewable energy, NC renewable energy, Maryland and so on.