Heidi Alexander: “I thought the President was right to focus on what the government is doing to clean up the oil spill, and what we are…”

“I thought the President was right to focus on what the government is doing to clean up the oil spill, and what we are doing to help those who are hurt. I think he missed an opportunity, though, in terms of looking to the energy future. He mentioned the climate bill. Of course that is House passed cap- and-trade bill which doesn't have enough support to pass the Senate. He mentioned windmills and solar panels, which have nothing to do with reducing our dependence on foreign oil. I thought the missed opportunity was the President could have announced a mini-Manhattan Project to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by electrifying half our cars and trucks, which we could do without building any new powerplants by plugging them in at night. The President is in favor of that. Secretary Chu is a leader in it. In a bipartisan way we support that goal. All 41 Republican Senators support electrifying our cars and trucks. Senator Dorgan, Senator Merkley, and I support legislation for that. He could have talked about that. A second part of the clean energy future could have been creating the environment to build 100 new nuclear power plants.”