Sun Goes Down on the White House

It was such a simple request. It could have symbolized the current administration's commitment to the fight against global warming. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the Obama administration failed to take this one little baby step!

A quest to get Barack Obama to shout his commitment to solar power from the roof tops - by re-installing vintage solar panels at the White House - ended in disappointment for environmental campaigners today.

Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, had led a group of environmental activists to Washington in a bio-diesel van hoping to persuade Obama to re-install a set of solar panels originally put up by Jimmy Carter.

The actual Carter-era solar panels - which weigh in at 55 kilograms and are nearly 2 metres long - are out-dated now. But campaigners had hoped that the White House would embrace at least the symbolism of going solar - much like Michelle Obama kicked off her healthy food movement by planting a vegetable garden.

"Clearly, a solar panel on the White House roof won't solve climate change - and we'd rather have strong presidential leadership on energy transformation. But given the political scene, this may be as good as we'll get for the moment," McKibben said in a Washington Post comment this morning.

A California company Sungevity had offered to equip the White House with the latest technology.

But the White House declined - twitchy perhaps about inviting any comparison to one-term Democratic president Carter in the run-up to the very difficult mid-term elections in November. The White House did send three staffers to meet the campaigners...

In situation after situation, the Obama administration has failed to lead. The president seems big on rhetoric, but has shown a lack of substantive action. Shifting the White House to solar and other forms of alternative energy would be both a symbolic and real change of direction. It would show he's serious about wanting to lead the way in attempts to reverse or slow down climate change.

But alas, he couldn't even commit to something as simple as this.