The environment: Green giant step for mankind

Published Date: 09 November 2008
By Kenny Farquharson

THE clue to its ambition is in the name. Barack Obama says his No 1 priority on getting into the Oval Office will be something he calls "the Apollo project".

By giving his plans for a green energy revolution, the same name as Nasa's programme to put a man on the moon, he has shown the importance he attaches to it, and signalled the amount of effort and vision it will require to work. American political analysts believe Obama sees this as one of his legacy projects, one of the epoch-making advances for which his administration will be remembered. Obama's plan promises a $150bn (£96bn) investment that had the political benefit of addressing three key goals for his administration. The first is jobs. On Friday last week, it was confirmed that American unemployment was at its highest for 14 years, with a million jobs having been lost from the country's economy in the past year.A new push on alternative energy generation would provide five million new "green collar jobs", according to the Obama team's calculations."The engine of economic growth for the past 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20. That was consumer spending. We turbocharged this economy based on cheap credit," he said during the campaign. Now a new turbocharger is required, and "there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy".He believes a clean-energy revolution can offer the same opportunities for economic growth as the computer did in the 1990s.The second benefit of the Apollo project is in cutting America's greenhouse gas emissions. Obama has wholeheartedly allied himself to former vice-president Al Gore, who is credited with changing the international debate on global warming with his Inconvenient Truth campaign. Obama also is conscious of the damage done to America's international reputation by George W Bush's refusal to sign up to the Kyoto agreement on climate change. Green groups say the Apollo agenda is one the country – and the world – cannot shirk. "We are not just facing an economic crisis unseen since the Great Depression; we are also facing a climate crisis, which we have never before seen in history. We must respond to both," says Gernot Wagner, economist with the Environmental Defense Fund in New York.But there are questions over how, in the current financial climate that makes it difficult for green energy firms to raise money on the markets, such a grand economic strategy can be financed. "The reality is when oil prices fall and consumption falls and taxes fall, then subsidising wind power becomes proportionately even more expensive," says Kevin Book, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Co.The Apollo aim is that renewable energy should supply a 10th of America's electricity within four years – a modest proposal by Scottish standards. Alongside this is a plan to insulate a million homes a year and to put a million rechargeable hybrid cars on American highways by 2015, by offering a $7,000 tax credit to those who buy them. The revolution is going to start with the White House car fleet.Obama is looking to the motor industry to play its part by focusing the development of new models on environmentally friendly vehicles rather than 4x4s. Research on fuel economy will also get a boost. The third benefit is one that speaks to a US mindset that craves a buffer between it and the rest of the world. Americans are uncomfortable with their reliance on the volatile Middle East for oil.The Republicans' answer to this during the presidential election campaign was to push for new oil exploration projects across America – summed up in Sarah Palin's promise to "drill, baby, drill". Obama's emphasis is very much on renewables, but to the same end – an America that is more self-reliant in energy and less vulnerable to turmoil in unfamiliar and unpredictable parts of the globe.Whether justified or not, the argument that Bush went to war in Iraq over oil, rather than democracy, is one that carries weight with Obama's base support. The willingness of an emboldened Russia to use oil as a political and economic weapon is another consideration driving the policy forward.The Apollo project is a daunting undertaking. Sceptics say that if this was such a central part of Obama's thinking for the country, why did he not devote a single speech to it in his entire campaign?Washington insiders also wonder whether Obama will need to reshape government in order to deliver this goal. They see a potential clash between the branches of the federal machine responsible for energy, transportation and the environment.It may require a new structure, with a powerful new cabinet member at its head. Although there are many senior Democrats with a good track record in this area – including Jay Inslee, from Washington state, who has co-written a book called Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy – there is some speculation that Obama might reach out to a Republican businessman. This would have the twin benefits of demonstrating his bi-partisan credentials and having someone in charge who is trusted by the business community, which is still coming to terms with what the Apollo project will mean for them.There are many people to persuade – the energy generation and supply industries; the car manufacturers; the oil industry. This is expected to be one of the main tasks of Obama's policy team in anticipation of Obama taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.