Clinton Touts Smart Grid, ‘Slumdog’
EmailABC News’ Ferdous Al-Faruque reports: Former President Bill Clinton (left) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., discussed America’s energy future at a Newsuem roundtable in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23, 2009.
Ferdous Al-Faruque/ ABC News A far-reaching group of Democratic heavyweights gathered in Washington, D.C., on Monday to promote a clean energy smart grid as a necessary tool in the fight against climate change. The Democrats pushing for a smart grid included former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "I think our generation’s purpose is to save the habitability of the Earth," said Gore. Gore echoed much of what other panelists had voiced in the day by stating that any future energy policy would have to take into account economic incentives. He specifically pointed to a national smart grid that proponents say would incorporate smaller energy sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, and supply energy more efficiently based on household needs. "When it’s put together, it gives us the ability to put that cost saving incentive into it and make clearly and plainly visible…where the savings can be made," he said. Clinton praised President Barack Obama and Congress for passing the economic stimulus package, a portion of which will go towards environmental initiatives. "I’m really proud of you," he said. "This economic recovery bill has good things in it and I’m grateful as a citizen." "We want America to be independent, we want to protect the future of our children and grandchildren, and we know this is the key to our job growth," he added. "We have to maximize the impact of this economic recovery money." Clinton also pointed out that the energy challenges ahead reached further than the borders of the United States. "We all know that no matter what we do we are going to have to have a national cap and trade legislation, we’re going to have to have a standard for electricity generation…and we all know we are going to have to have a global agreement." Clinton made his case by talking about the opening scene of this year’s biggest Oscar winner. "Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars and those of us who saw it probably liked it that they won those, I did anyway," said Clinton. "(The slum children) run across the Mumbai landfill and they might as well be sprinting across the Sahara Desert and you see people there making a living scrounging in the landfill. We’re trying to help them close that and one in Lagos, Nigeria, and we’ve negotiated with Mexico City and other places. "Look this is really hard but the only thing I want to say is…we can close all these landfills, recycle the metal and glass, compress the organic material and my favorite use is to use it as biomass fuel for generating electricity."
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Then, nuclear energy is the only solution.
Yet, nobody is talking about it, not because they do not know it is the only clean and unlimited energy source, but because the Smartest Clueless PB0 has no clue and does not want to do it. So, none of them do not talk about.
Mr. Gore, do you really sleep well dreaming about the electrical cars that PB0 put on the street, powered by the electricity generated by burning coal and natural gas?
PB0 is clueless. You bright people need to talk and do something about it. If you push hard enough, and when the public are on board with you, by giving them facts, not scare tactics that PB0 and his companies put out, perhaps, his Nothingness will change along with the wind. He wanted to win elections more than anything else.
So, change the public opinions, then, PB0 will follow.
Posted by: two cats | February 24, 2009, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm
Forget about the Grid. Without energy, it’s useless with the grid. Without 70-80% of nuclear energy by 2050, you will always at the brink of war, somewhere, some kind, somehow.
Posted by: two cats | February 24, 2009, 9:32 pm 9:32 pm
What a joke! It’s not even good as leftist propaganda. Do the sheep really lap this up?
That fool and fraud Gore teamed up with the thoroughly corrupt Bill Clinton as a sideshow for Obama’s leftist power grab.
Evil deeds, done with sheep.
Posted by: Sinecure | February 24, 2009, 10:15 pm 10:15 pm
The discussion is in general informative, but they seem to be focused mostly on the wind and solar power which rely heavily on the development of new power transmission system, which is expected to run into difficulty in the populated area. Strange enough, there was no mention of new nuclear power or hydro electric power development or the clean coal technology or off shore oil drilling or drilling in Alaska or battery development for plug in hybrid cars. Overall, it appears that the energy problem involves a wide range of engineering technologies, which can not be fully understood or solved by a bunch of politicians or Nobel prize winners alone. As the current electricity output of solar and wind power remain to be quite small compared with the total power output, the targeted doubling of output of solar and wind power in three years can not be considered to be a great achievement for solving the nation’s energy problem .
Posted by: austin | February 24, 2009, 11:31 pm 11:31 pm
I tend to agree with the statement made long ago by a truly great American patriot – ” I can’t believe what I just heard, and I don’t “
Posted by: Tucano Fulano | February 25, 2009, 12:01 am 12:01 am
I’m amazed at how little people know regarding energy independence and the benefit we will enjoy as a consequence. We need a comprehensive development plan that identifies all the parts and how they are to be networked. It should address all the existing network resources, including all domestic and foreign resources, as well as all of the proposed resources and especially those that are fossil fuel independent. It should be multi-faceted to show how, over time, the energy network will become free from all foreign resource and all fossil fuel dependent domestic resources.
Posted by: John Locke | February 25, 2009, 12:54 am 12:54 am
al gore is a phoney lying horses butt and its time that we quit listening to this jerk,he is crying wolf in order to make hundreds of millions with GE on their wind turbines. Wake up global warming is a lie
Posted by: JA | February 25, 2009, 3:04 am 3:04 am
Al Gore may be phoney…. but it is because he doesn’t go far enough in addressing Global Warming, not because Global Warming is a lie. Wake up, pull your stupid head outta the sand! Arctic Ice could be gone by the summer of 2012, it’s now half the size of 1997. What more you need to know??? Get some facts by reading and questioning more objectively. If not, the chart that depicts the crash of the stock market could well be applied to the population on Planet Earth – decreased all of a sudden! Crash of a different thing but for the same underlying reason: Herd Behaviors!!! Drive SUV, Eat Tons of Meat, Clear the Amazon rain forests and grow soy for cows so you could slaughter them and bury their corpses in your stomach and get fat and somewhere down the road heart attack with the accompanying side effect of contributing to Global Warming!
So, JA, please do a little more research. Google “Global Warming and meat eating and Methane”
Al Gore ain’t a lier, just too chicken to go all the way to tell you the “Inconvenient Truth”!!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/science/earth/04meat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Posted by: Bryan | February 25, 2009, 5:52 am 5:52 am
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/business/climate.php
Posted by: Bryan | February 25, 2009, 5:53 am 5:53 am
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/11/food.climatechange
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,druck-574754,00.html
Posted by: Bryan | February 25, 2009, 5:54 am 5:54 am
abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1856817&page=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/science/earth/04meat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Posted by: bryan | February 25, 2009, 5:55 am 5:55 am
EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined.
How about this fact?????
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/business/media/29adco.html
Posted by: bryan | February 25, 2009, 5:56 am 5:56 am
bryan wrote: “EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined.”
======================================
I am doing my part to cut down on the contribution that cows have toward global warming (he says while laughing hysterically) by grilling up cow meat every night :)
Posted by: Global Fraud! | February 25, 2009, 8:57 am 8:57 am
For the wind and solar power development, there is an ‘inconvenient truth’ that a lot of hardware has to be imported from foreign countries like Denmark (for wind power) and China on solar and wind mill. The installation of solar panels probably needs no college graduates. Also, without a new power grid, the highly populated area in US where most of the electric power is consumed, can never enjoy the use of solar and wind power which is more available in less populated area.
Posted by: austin | February 25, 2009, 11:17 am 11:17 am
Here is an energy saving tip for the USA-ban the messiah of global warming from flying all over the world in his private jet telling us all how we need to breathe less.
300 private jets descended on DC in 2001 when W was inaugurated. Over 600 came in when barry was in january!
Limousine liberals, what a freakin joke!
Posted by: barryisasocialist | February 25, 2009, 4:14 pm 4:14 pm