Oval Office Speech Should not Endorse China’s Renewable Investments
Nicolas Loris /
In the 1990s, Gatorade ran its “I wanna be like Mike” campaign – a series of advertisements of kids aspiring to be basketball legend Michael Jordan. In light of the oil spill, President Obama is ramping up his “I wanna be like” campaign when it comes to America’s energy policy. In his May 27th speech on the oil spill, after calling for Congress to pass cap and trade legislation, President Obama said the United States should be more like China when it comes to our green economy:
It’s time to accelerate the competition with countries like China, who have already realized the future lies in renewable energy. And it’s time to seize that future ourselves.”
He will likely do the same tonight in his first Oval Office speech. To be clear, China hasn’t quite realized the future is in renewable energy. According to the latest monthly oil report from the Energy Information Agency (EIA), “China may account for 40 percent of this year’s expected rebound in oil consumption and nearly 45 per cent of oil demand growth in the next five years.” To say that China is moving away from fossil fuels and towards a green energy economy is misleading, especially when coal provides 70 percent of the nation’s energy and 80 percent of its electricity. It is projected that China’s coal capacity will nearly triple by 2030.