Live from the CGI: President Clinton Exclusive II – Energy, the Environment and T. Boone Pickens

Last night, in the few minutes we weren’t talking about the financial crisis and the impending bailout, President Clinton waxed political on the potential for energy investment in the United States. According to the President, the near-certain reality of approving legislation liberalizing off-shore drilling should be seen as a political opportunity for progressives interested in sustainable environment and combating climate change. But if we’re going to “give” drilling to the right, the left should negotiate hard for the environment, including:

1. Extending solar and wind energy tax credits from three years to ten;
2. The creation of a fee collection system to modernize the electricity grid;
3. $10,000 tax credits for purchasing plug-in electric hybrid cars, and;
4. Compressed natural gas for trucks
   

On the subject of T. Boone Pickens, whose advertising campaigns have sparked intrigue across the USA, Clinton commented, “Boone Pickens is a god-send to this effort.” More specifically, Pickens’ plan is to modernize the electricity grid and harness the wind to power the whole of the United States. This is something reportedly is something wind can actually do, with the right grid. And despite few fiscal incentives to invest in this new technology (something President Clinton suggests need immediate remedy), there is currently two-year waiting list for wind-powered mills.

But why is off-shore drilling inevitable? In Clinton’s mind, even though he knows for a fact that there is no more than 6 months of oil in the arctic refuge that the legislation would open to drilling, the fact of the matter is that the government has got to “get real.” Everyday Americans are hurting in a big way, and they see gas prices as the cause of so much of their pain. This short-term solution is a political necessity. But, if “there is going to be drilling, let’s get something for it.”