Say It Ain't So Already

White House Rejects Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panel

September 10, 2010 at 3:44 PM Leave a comment

Did you hear about this?  What a freakin’ opportunity lost by the scaredy cat White House:

Bill McKibben, an environmental campaigner from Vermont with a flair for showmanship, was rebuffed Friday morning in his effort to get the White House to reinstall one of the solar panels that President Jimmy Carter had placed on the White House roof.

They were removed by the Reagan administration, and some have been stored for years at environmentally active Unity College in Maine. Mr. McKibben and a group of students drove one of the panels down the East Coast in the hope of getting the Obama White House to accept it and return it to the roof to heat water for presidential showers and dishwashing.

Mr. McKibben met with three mid-level White House officials Friday morning who told him, politely, no dice.

What a stupid decision.  Accepting the panel and agreeing to re-install it on the roof of the White House would have been such a positive, even if largely symbolic act.  The country would have loved it and I bet the world would have loved it too.  Not only that, it would have been a perfect way to highlight one of the big differences between Democrats (well, progressive Democrats) and Republicans and to point out how, had Reagan stuck with Carter’s proposals to ween us off of foreign oil, we’d pretty much be energy independent today.

Shorter reaction:  What a bummer.

Entry filed under: Democrats, Including Blue Dogs & "Liberals", Energy, Republicans, Including Wingers & "Moderates". Tags: .