10 Things I would do if I were President: #4 A 100% committment to alternative energy usage and ending our dependance on foreign oil

When I was 5, my family and I moved into our 2nd home in a large western suburb of Detroit. A house in our neighborhood had 2 solar panels on each side of its roof (total of 4). I never got to know who it was that lived in that house in the late 1970's and early 1980's, but it wasn't too long there after that 3 or 4 more homes on that same street installed their own solar panels. This was my first encounter with "green technologies" and after I got inquisitive enough to ask the right questions I learned what these solar "panels" were for: capturing sunlight to convert to energy. Needless to say these homes never had a problem being sold and all of them had electric bills that were less than half of their neighbors who didn't have this equipment on their roof. When I got older and learned more about this technology I found out that original owners of these homes spent close to $20,000 to have just 4 solar panels installed on their roofs in a region that sees less than 100 days of sunny to partly sunny skies a year. It's been 10 years since I've seen those homes and I'm quite sure that those solar panels are still operational and saving their home owners thousands a year on their electric bills...In the summer of 2008 the nation cringed and changed it's habits and thoughts about electricity and power consumption as gas prices spiked to over $4 at the pump. Suddenly the nation as a whole was conscientious about its energy consumption. People began driving less and turning in their gas guzzling SUV's for more fuel efficient vehicles-particularly gas sipping Hybrids. People also began looking at other energy saving measures. Energy saver light bulbs and appliances are now "in"; people are looking at home wind mill systems and solar panels and tiles as ways to supplement their consumption of traditional fossil fuel generated electricity and as ways to save on their monthly electrical bills...What is sad is that in the nearly 30 years in which I first encountered the usage of solar panels to provide power, very few people still have yet to catch on to the technology-even despite the price spike of gasoline just a few short months ago. It is said that American's are "addicted" to oil-hence our group reluctance to adopt more renewable and "green" energy technologies. In my view this is more the fault of our Federal and State government than it is the fault of we the people...Solar and wind power has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last 30 years. Those same solar panels I first encountered 30 years ago, would capture 5 times the power today then they did when they were installed all those years ago and not cost $20,000 to install. We have no excuses anymore: there is no reason why every home in our nation should not have some sort of supplemental renewable power source, whether it be a few solar panels (or tiles) or a small wind mill generator on the top our home, every home in America should have this technology to provide power. Not only do we owe to our planets ecology and our check book, but we also owe to our nation's economy. In 2007, nearly 70% of all the oil we used in this country was imported and only 10% of our electrical grid was supplied by renewable sources of electricity (solar; wind; hydro; etc...). These are scary numbers when weighed against the fact that we are supposed to be the worlds cultural, economic and technological leader and that much of this imported oil comes from nations with questionable foreign policies and relations to our enemy's and as such provides some of these nations far to much control over our domestic economy... As with our military, our ideas about how we create and supply energy are stuck in the 19th and 20th century's and a large reason for this is our Federal Government. The Fed does not out right hinder the advancement and propagation of renewable and "green" energy sources, but it blantantly panders to the lobbyists who work for the "old tech" oil companies and monopoly energy providers in states all over the country-and there is little question that these companies fear the mass usage of green and renewable energy sources. Because of this pandering, the Fed allows only small projects to be subsidized or funded through grants to proceed and be built. We have no excuses for our blatant misuse of natural resources and the way in which we treat our planet's ecology, nor for the amount of oil we are forced to import each year. We have only one Earth and it has limited natural resources and we know that we have a finite supply of oil. As such, if I were President, it would be a standing order in my administration to put any renewable energy initiative ahead of any concerns of the old tech oil companies and state energy providers. To alieve their concerns I would encourage these same companies to get on board and invest in these technologies, to embrace them and provide them to the customers they serve. For automobiles I would force the release of long held patents by oil companies and others who have held them (assuming they still do), holding up the development, production and distribution of fuel cell vehicles in this country. I would also provide support for any state or county willing to install building codes which require a certain percentage of solar cells/tiles as part of a buildings use, and any other "green" techs which communities may see fit to utilize...We are all one nation and one community when it comes to the planet we live on. Not only is the road we are heading down-as it concerns our fossil fuel usage-a dead end one, but it is also one which provides an unacceptable amount of domestic economic influence to nations with questionable foreign ties. We are all in this thing together and the only way to get out of it is by all of us committing to the usage of renewable and green sources of energy, and it should be the responsibility of our Federal Government to lead the way-not get in the way.