Climate Change a State of the Union Address Cornerstone

President Obama’s final State of the Union address Tuesday night held strong on environmental issues, particularly climate change. The president counted them among four major topics— “four big questions that we as a country have to answer.”

The address was part overview of seven years of progress, part hopeful gaze on a future in which the U.S. continues to reinvent its energy sector and resolve the problems and threats of climate change.

“I want to focus on our future,” the president said. “There have been those who told us to fear the future.” He urged that the nation not fall into fear-induced inertia, but rather recognize the problem of climate change as an opportunity to “emerge stronger and better.”

Progress is not inevitable, President Obama warned. “It is the result of choices we make together. And we face such choices right now. Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, and turning against each other as a people? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for, and the incredible things we can do together?

“How do we make technology work for us, and not against us — especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change?

Sputnik Denial

Then, he delivered what was probably the night’s most salient, truth-crystallizing, mirthful metaphors related to climate change and its deniers: “Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget.

“We built a space program almost overnight, and 12 years later, we were walking on the moon.”

“Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You’ll be pretty lonely, because you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it.”

Innovate Out of Quagmire

President Obama referenced America’s spirit of discovery and ingenuity, nudging Americans to channel them into positive action to not only abate climate change, but also to take advantage of the challenge to emerge as a leader and profit from it.

America is leading the fight against climate change with the most ambitious global climate agreement ever, he said.

The president recounted the many efforts undertaken during his presidency so far to fight climate change, including the Clean Power Plan, which is intended to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 32 percent by 2030; raising corporate average fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks by double; and the American Renewal and Reinvestment Act which was “the single biggest investment in clean energy in our history.”

As a result, “wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power,” he said. “On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and employs more Americans than coal — in jobs that pay better than average. We’re taking steps to give homeowners the freedom to generate and store their own energy — something environmentalists and Tea Partiers have teamed up to support. Meanwhile, we’ve cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly 60 percent, and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.”

Accelerate Clean Energy Future

The president prompted Americans to accelerate the transition to clean, renewable energy and stop dwelling and investing in the energy forms of previous centuries.

“Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future — especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels. That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet. That way, we put money back into those communities and put tens of thousands of Americans to work building a 21st century transportation system.”

President Obama warned that this energy transition would take time; its opponents would fight it. “There are plenty of entrenched interests who want to protect the status quo. But the jobs we’ll create, the money we’ll save, and the planet we’ll preserve — that’s the kind of future our kids and grandkids deserve.”

The full transcripts of the State of the Union address are available here.