We’ll be hearing a lot about Jimmy Carter in the days ahead. I tried yesterday to highlight just some of what he accomplished, and something he tried ever so hard to do. That ‘something’ is Carter trying during his Presidency to set us on a path to leading the world in renewable energy and solar power in particular. I’m just a nobody on a political blog but Thomas Friedman is a well-known writer for the New York Times so perhaps Carter’s efforts, and the tragedy of what might have been (had we listened to and followed his lead) when it comes to solar power will get the attention it deserves.
In his column Friedman goes into some detail about the matter. How Carter tried to get the ball rolling and how Reagan didn’t just stop it but stuck a knife in the thing. I’ve already been saying Carter didn’t get support on most things even from fellow Democrats, much less the rest of “Official Washington” and he sure as hell wasn’t listened to when it came for calls to invest in solar energy. However as Friedman notes someone else was listening. CHINA. And China grabbed the lead in developing ever better and cheaper solar panels. Worse, they have a huge lead and won’t be giving it up, at least anytime soon. Friedman writes of an alternate reality.
He speaks of Carter’s installation of solar panels, at the time rather crude ones but still effective on the roof of the WH. They heated water for both the upstairs residence and the cafeteria. During the dedication Carter laid out a bold vision, and also posed some now haunting questions:
“On June 20, 1979, the Carter administration installed 32 panels designed to harvest the sun’s rays and use them to heat water. Here is what Carter predicted at the dedication ceremony: ‘In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. … 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 just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.’”
Reagan of course wasn’t impressed with solar power. His own energy policy was to drive down the price of oil. In part it made gas cheap which pleased Americans but also hurt the economy of the old USSR and helped lead to its demise. Still, as Friedman notes in 1986 when Reagan had the solar panels removed the technology was really starting to mature. We were in a position to lead the world with it. And blew it!
Solar power would indeed become one of the cheapest and cleanest forms of energy. Alas instead of the twenty years Carter said it would take for that to happen, and for the U.S. to meet what in retrospect a modest goal of solar power use it took FORTY. And all the while as we delayed the climate change experts had been warning about went on virtually unchecked. We passed the tipping point. That much is clear and now the best we can do is mitigate how bad it gets and how quickly. But let’s leave that aside for now. In the blocked quote above there was something about the array and water heater behind Carter winding up in a museum. Thanks to Reagan that’s just what happened:
By the way, Carter was also right that his panels could end up one day in a museum. But he could never have anticipated it would be in a museum in China, which did take the solar road — fast.
As Biello noted, after Reagan took down the panels in 1986, one of the 32 was saved and now resides at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, one is at the Carter Library, and one — you can’t make this up — joined “the collection of the Solar Science and Technology Museum in Dezhou, China. Huang Ming, chairman of Himin Solar Energy Group Co., the largest manufacturer of such solar hot water heaters in the world, accepted the donation for permanent display there on Aug. 5.”
Yep, people in this country including so many Democrats blew off Carter’s vision but China did not. They wasted no time going all-in as I’ve already stated. China now controls 80% of the world’s PV solar power and supply chain. They produce twice as many panels as the EU and three freaking times what the United States does. Carter had a goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from renewables, much of it solar in twenty years. It took us forty but, even though we are there, only around four percent is solar. People keep forgetting Jimmy Carter was an engineer by training due to his attending the Naval Academy. Just because his expertise was in nuclear energy didn’t mean Carter wasn’t willing to learn about other sources. He was convinced solar had huge potential and that the U.S. could lead the world in the emerging technology.
Friedman’s piece takes a few minutes but it’s worth your time. I am writing this because already we have a-holes trashing Carter’s Presidency. I was so livid at something put out by CNN’s Scot Jennings I had to walk away from my computer! Had I written what I thought Ursula would have had to kick me off the site. My blood still boils over it. My point is that Trumpty clearly has put out the word and news executives are paying attention to not get too carried away with honoring Jimmy Carter. And in fact to trash him some. You might say I’ve devolved into CT thinking and need a tinfoil hat. Remember how ABC capitulated to Trump, folding like a cheap lawn chair and then say I’ve gone round the bend in your comments.
The plain facts are that Carter was a better President than he was ever given credit for being. As I pointed out in this piece I posted yesterday. Perhaps because Friedman is someone people will read and pay attention to the public will learn some truth about the man and President Jimmy Carter actually was. And if in time, as global climate change grows worse by the year people will be haunted by the question of “Why didn’t Americans pay attention to Jimmy Carter when he was President and tried to establish a solid renewable energy policy? It will be up to us to keep raising that question, and on this and other things preserve his legacy.
