Summary of Obama’s Blueprint for an America Built to Last

Dana Cary, HOLTROP S.L.P. Transaction & Business Law

 Today I was perusing through Barrack Obama’s website and stumbled upon his State of the Union Address that discussed his “All of the Above” energy strategy. In short, the idea behind this strategy is to develop all possible forms of energy in order to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and make strides in the “go green” environmental movement. This energy strategy promotes the use of cleaner fuels in our vehicles, the development of wind energy and solar production, the construction of new nuclear power plants, and the research of cost effective clean coal technology, among other go green incentives. While Obama’s “All of the Above” Energy Strategy is quite comprehensive, it is just one component of his environmental blueprint for an “America Built to Last.” This blueprint, outlined in January 2012, is a blueprint for the future—a blueprint for an environmentally-friendly America with a growing economy, thriving on renewable and alternative energy sources. In this blueprint, Obama wants to focus on doubling down on clean energy while additionally harnessing every available source of American energy. He believes that the more we invest in clean energy, the better off America will be--especially in terms of the environment and economy. While there are many components of Obama’s blueprint, the first aspect of his plan is to make a new lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico to move forward in producing safe oil and gas development. The Obama administration estimates that, from this sale, approximately 38 million acres will become available which could result in the production of 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Other components of this plan include reducing foreign dependence on oil by promoting the safe development of natural gas and encouraging greater use of natural gas in transportation. To promote safe development, new rules will be created that require the disclosure of the chemicals used in the fracking operations on public land. The administration will propose incentives for trucks and busses to run on natural gas, and will find new ways to convert and store natural gas. Nation-wide research competitions will be created to engage our most renowned scientists and engineers to discover new ways of harnessing natural gas. One of the biggest themes in Obama’s blueprint is his commitment to clean energy. Obama wants to expand our market for clean energy technologies, and has aspirations of doubling the share of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. Targeted tax incentives will also be employed to promote clean energy manufacturing. Public lands will be made available to private investors in clean energy, and the Department of the Interior is already committed to issuing permits for 10 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity from new projects on our public lands by the end of 2012. I highly recommend you check out Obama’s blueprint for an “America Built to Last" because it's incredibly comprehensive and outlines the concrete steps we need to take in order to make our goals achievable. Here’s the link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/blueprint_for_an_america_built_to_last.pdf