If we wait for the US Senate to create even adequate, let alone progressive, thoughtful legislation mandating a price on carbon, it will be too late. I have written about the manifestly undemocratic public policy graveyard that is the US Senate and its denizens a number of times. If you care about the parlous state of our climate system, The New Yorker had an article this week that was particularly painful to read: “As the World Burns.”
However, I do think the article has painted the Obama Administration in an unfairly poor light, as has commentary from a number of sources, particularly my brothers and sisters on the Left. I wrote here, for instance, about Joe Romm’s frankly ludicrous assertion that Obama’s presidency is “failing” because of his inability to pull a legislative climate change rabbit out of the hat of the Senate. (Is that straining at the metaphor?)
In any event, because of the stark reality of the Senate’s ongoing and seemingly endless mis-, mal- and nonfeasance, as portrayed so vividly in the New Yorker article, the grownups in the Obama Administration have been moving forward with all due speed. I have celebrated their initiatives here many times and I hope to continue to do so for the next six years.
For instance, as the excellent Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote the other day at the NYT, the Department of Defense is moving vigorously forward in deploying renewable energy at its bases and alternative fuels for its fleets, very much including aircraft, with the Air Force seeking to have its entire complement certified to run on biofuels by next year. One very senior DOD official is particularly gung ho: “‘There are a lot of profound reasons for doing this, but for us at the core it’s practical,’ said Ray Mabus, the Navy secretary and a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who has said he wants 50 percent of the power for the Navy and Marines to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. That figure includes energy for bases as well as fuel for cars and ships.” 50% by 2020! (And the breathtakingly regressed body that is the US Senate is talking about 15% by 2040. Child, please!)
For more from Rosenthal, listen in on the podcast interview with her at the article.
Meanwhile, the White House announced that it will install solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof. This is a return to the time when Jimmy Carter had solar on the White House. Ronald Reagan, you may remember, contemptuously ripped that array down.
Over at the Department of the Interior, Secretary Ken Salazar made several separate big announcements this week granting the use of public land for pathbreaking installations of utility-scale renewables. The first announcement included two solar projects: Imperial Valley (709 MW) and Chevron Lucerne Valley (45 MW). Another project, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, will produce up to 370 MW with a “power tower” from BrightSource Energy. 
(I saw another power tower in operation a little over a year ago in Andalusia. It’s really quite beautiful.)
To cap a very big week for renewable energy in the United States, Secretary Salazar also announced the signing of a 28-year lease for Cape Wind, the first offshore wind power project for our coastal waters. Cape Wind is particularly gratifying because the project’s developers have battled through nine years of stomach-churning obfuscation, ill will and downright prevarication from its opponents, mostly moneyed folks named Kennedy, Koch and Mellon, among others. Cape Wind’s story is epic. Jim Gordon, Cape Wind’s guiding genius, said here: “We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work building America’s first offshore wind farm that will create hundreds of jobs, increase our energy independence and promote a healthier and more hopeful energy future.” Good on ‘ya, Jim.
