While political power struggles are on temporary hold during the 2013 Congressional summer recess, there’s a new source of power at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House is installing solar panels on the roof of the presidential residence.

During his first term in office, President Obama made a point of promising to put solar panels on the White House. Now, in 2013, that promise is being kept. The White House says the project will help demonstrate that historic buildings can incorporate solar energy and energy efficiency upgrades.

But President Obama cannot claim to be the first solar-powered president. He’s actually the third.

Jimmy Carter

In 1979, in the midst of the Arab oil embargo, which caused a national energy crisis, Carter installed 32 solar panels on the presidential mansion. At the same time, Carter called for a campaign to conserve energy. In a speech at the solar-panel installation, Carter called solar energy one way to make America more energy independent, saying, “No one can ever embargo the sun or interrupt its delivery to us.”

He added:

“…a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum

piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people; harnessing the power of the Sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”

Along with the gesture of adding solar power to the White House, Carter enacted fossil-fuel-reduction strategies and energy-tax credits that would encourage taxpayers to become more energy efficient in their daily lives as well.

Carter was right about at least one thing: the panels turned into “a road not taken.” Less than 10 years later—in 1986—Republican President Ronald Reagan had the perfectly functional solar panels removed.

According to Forgotten History:

In 1986 when the price of energy was temporarily cheaper and Americans’ minds were less focused on environmental issues, President Reagan ordered the panels removed from the White House roof. Reagan’s Administration “felt that the equipment was just a joke… and he had it taken down.” Reagan, who didn’t think much of solar energy, also allowed the tax credit Carter had instated to lapse.Then came “a clear, calculated campaign by the [Department of Energy] in the years of the Reagan administration to crush the solar energy program of the federal government. Conservatives deemed solar energy a liberal idea, so Reagan’s move may have been motivated  by his desire to show that he was a true conservative.

In 1992, half of Jimmy Carter’s doomed solar were installed on the roof of Unity College in Maine, where they worked efficiently for more than a decade. The story of their resurrection and reuse is chronicled in a documentary called “A Road Not Taken.”

George W. Bush[!]

Surprisingly, President and oil-man George W. Bush installed solar panels, too. But, probably to protect his image with the fossil-fuel industry, he didn’t tell anyone about it. According to Forgotten History, in 2002, the National Park Service quietly installed a small number of solar panels on a maintenance building they manage on White House grounds, marking a semi-return to the use of solar power. The Bush Administration did not publicize the installations, which reportedly now heat the White House pool.

I can just hear conservative nabobs of negativism yowling that President Obama is ruining a historic building with new technology–sort of how America has ruined the Constitution by updating it with, y’know, voting rights for African-Americans. And lefties may complain that Obama took too long to do this and hasn’t gone far enough. But, as environmental activist Bill McKibbon of 350.org recently said, ” In truth, no one should ever have taken down the panels Jimmy Carter put on the roof way back in 1979. But it’s very good to know that once again the country’s most powerful address will be drawing some of that power from the sun.”

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On Friday, May 25, and Saturday, May 26, of this year, Germany set a new world record for solar power generation. On Friday, a third of the country’s energy was generated by solar energy and on Saturday, a full half of Germany was running on solar power.  This is a remarkable achievement for Germany, and for the world. Since the tragic nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, Germany is shuttering all its nuclear power plants and is committed to replacing them with clean sources of energy. And it seems they are keeping their word. The Guardian reports:

German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the midday hours of Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank has said.

Some critics say renewable energy is not reliable enough nor is there enough capacity to power major industrial nations. But the country’s leader, Angela Merkel has said Germany is eager to demonstrate that is possible.

The jump above the 20 GW level was due to increased capacity this year and bright sunshine nationwide. The 22 GW figure is up from about 14 GW a year ago. Germany added 7.5 GW of installed power generation capacity in 2012 and 1.8 GW more in the first quarter for a total of 26 GW capacity.

According to Reuters: Germany has the world’s largest market for photovoltaic energy, and accounts for nearly half of the world’s solar capacity.

Treehugger, explains that Germany’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) system—which requires utilities to buy solar power from producers, including individuals, at a fixed rate—has fueled the nation’s solar boom. In other words, anybody can install solar panels on their roof, feed them into the grid, and get paid for the energy they contribute back to the system. Since solar panels are becoming more affordable, more people are able to install them and offset their electric bill.

In contradiction to her praise for Germany’s solar achievement, Angela Merkel has proposed cutting FIT solar subsidies in yet another misguided “austerity” measure. Britain has also proposed cutting solar subsidies. At a time when government needs to spend to help working families, both countries are doing exactly the wrong thing.

Why are we subsidizing the fossil fuel industry?

Here at home, we use taxpayer’s money to lavishly subsidize the fossil fuel industry—to the tune of $72 billion over the past 5 years. By contrast, we have allotted only $1 billion for the solar industry. Imagine what we could do if we eliminated fossil fuel subsidies from industries that don’t need them because they are already making massive profits? Imagine, too, if they actually paid taxes? We could use those billions to make real headway in transitioning to clean energy. We could fight climate change and clean up the environment. We could provide jobs installing solar and wind systems for people out of work. We could lead the world in alternative energy research and innovation.

What is the problem here? The answer is simple. We have a political class that is beholden to, and therefore supports, the environmentally polluting fossil fuel industry. The industries themselves spend fortunes on highly manipulative, false, Orwellian ads about how responsible they are to you, the citizen and taxpayer. I’m thinking of the “clean coal” adds, for example. And, behind the scenes, industry lobbyists make sure that any legislation that cuts into their obscene profits is watered down or destroyed before it gets to committee.

If we allow this manipulation and corruption to go unchallenged, we will never make headway in the fight against climate change and global warming, and we will continue to pour billions of taxpayer money into old, dead-end, polluting energy sources. End fossil fuel subsidies. Support renewable energy. Help America become more secure, environmentally responsible and energy independent. It’s the sensible and right thing to do.

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