Hey Mr President - Root Boy Slim

Every year, my firm brings in a student choir from the bosses’ high school to sing traditional carols. In preparation I wanted to hear Xmas at K-Mart. I also ran across the above, which seems awfully appropriate in the current economic climate. Aretha probably won’t sing it at the inauguration, but someone should.

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Also: Parsing Obama’s Remarks - Tom Whipple

On Monday President-elect Obama introduced the folks that will lead the nation’s energy and environmental policies for the next four or possibly eight years.

These are the people who must develop, and more importantly sell to Congress and the nation, the programs that will cope with the end of cheap, abundant oil, and increasing global temperatures.

The contrasts between the old and new administrations are striking. The environmental credentials of the President-elect’s selections are so strong that the League of Conservation Voters immediately dubbed them “the green dream team.” In introducing his appointees, President-elect Obama outlined his views on the environment and energy and in effect charged his team with their energy and environmental goals for the next four years.

In his first paragraph of his remarks, the President-elect got right to his key point; “the future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked to one challenge: energy.” He then said “All of us know the problems rooted in our addiction to foreign oil - it constrains our economy, shifts wealth to hostile regimes, and leaves us dependent on unstable regions. These urgent dangers are eclipsed only by the long-term threat of climate change, which - unless we act - will lead to drought and famine abroad, devastating weather patterns and terrible storms on our shores, and the disappearance of our coastline at home.”

These are words that the peak oil and environmental communities have been waiting for many years to hear. Not only did the President-elect finger the vast quantities of imported oil that keeps American running, he said it is urgent we do something. The juxtaposition of need to reduce imported energy with the longer term, but potentially more serious, threat of climate change shows that the new administration understands both the relative urgency and long-term importance of these key issues.

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