Energy, Climate Change,
and Our Environment

The President has taken unprecedented action to build the foundation for a clean energy economy, tackle the issue of climate change, and protect our environment.

Energy and Environment Latest News

  • A New Leader in Protecting our Oceans and Coasts

    Posted by Deerin Babb-Brott on March 8, 2012 at 6:30 PM EDT

    This week marks my first as Director of the National Ocean Council (NOC) Office, a role in which I'm tremendously honored to serve on behalf of the American people. Since its inception, the NOC has evolved into an engine for advancing stewardship of our ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes—resources that contribute not just to our Nation's economy, but also to our environmental health and overall public wellbeing. The task before the Council—to advance the sustainable use of our ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources under President Obama's National Ocean Policy—could not be more important.

    The NOC has already made significant progress. In January 2012, the National Ocean Council released a strong, scientifically robust draft Implementation Plan to carry out the National Ocean Policy. The draft Plan reflects feedback from hundreds of stakeholders and members of the public. Additional comments being received and incorporated now will help us improve and develop the final Plan.

    I am looking forward to building on this progress by applying 22 years of experience in the resource management field, with a focus on coastal management issues and public involvement that culminated in leading the development of an ocean management plan for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I am also looking forward to working with the members and staff of the NOC and the agencies who are working hard to ensure healthy oceans. The expertise and capability of those directly supporting the NOC is extraordinary. But we can't do it alone. That's why collaborating and communicating with our partners and the public—including industries, environmental groups, states, tribes, communities, academia, and others—will remain a top priority for the Council as we move ahead.

    Again, it's an honor to be aboard.

    Deerin Babb-Brott is Director of the National Ocean Council Office

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  • Electric Vehicle Grand Challenge Targets Technology and Cost Breakthroughs

    Posted by Cristin Dorgelo and Tom Kalil on March 7, 2012 at 8:14 PM EDT

    Today, President Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the launch of EV Everywhere, an electric vehicle Grand Challenge that seeks to make electric vehicles as affordable and convenient to own and drive as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles within a decade.

    This is the second in a series of Clean Energy Grand Challenges to be announced by the Department of Energy (DOE). The first in the series, already underway, is the $1/watt SunShot Grand Challenge, which seeks to make solar power directly cost-competitive with electricity from fossil fuels by 2020. 

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  • President Obama Announces $1 Billion Fund to Promote Energy Efficient Vehicles

    Posted by Matt Compton on March 7, 2012 at 7:37 PM EDT

    President Barack Obama tours a Daimler Trucks North America plant (March 7, 2012)

    President Barack Obama tours Daimler Trucks North America Mt. Holly Truck Manufacturing Plant in Mount Holly, North Carolina, March 7, 2012. On this part of the tour the President saw the Chassis Airing Station where multi-colored nylon air lines are installed for the brake system. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

    Today, President Obama made a trip to a manufacturing plant for Daimler Trucks North America in Mount Holly, North Carolina. He was in the Tar Heel state to discuss more ways his administration is taking an all-of-the-above approach to American energy. 

    He talked about how his administration is pursuing new domestic energy sources, expanding oil and gas production, and reducing our overall reliance on oil through development of renewable energy. 

    But at a place where workers are busy assembling trucks that run on natural gas, the President also announced a new $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge to help boost the deployment of clean, advanced vehicles all over America:

    To cities and towns all across the country, what we’re going to say is, if you make a commitment to buy more advanced vehicles for your community -- whether they run on electricity or biofuels or natural gas -- we’ll help you cut through the red tape and build fueling stations nearby. And we’ll offer tax breaks to families that buy these cars, companies that buy alternative fuel trucks like the ones that are made right here at Mount Holly. So we’re going to give communities across the country more of an incentive to make the shift to more energy-efficient cars.

    Have questions about President Obama's Blueprint for American-Made Energy? Learn more here.


     

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  • Poll Shows More Americans Accept Global Warming, Say Seeing is Believing

    Posted by Phil Duffy and Becky Fried on March 6, 2012 at 11:14 AM EDT

    Polling results released last week by the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania) show that, compared to previous surveys, the largest majority of Americans in years now believe global warming is occurring. Sixty two percent of respondents to the December 2011 National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change (NSAPOCC) agreed there is “solid evidence” that Earth has been getting warmer over the past four decades—a marked increase from 55 percent just half a year earlier.

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  • Weekly Address: Taking Control of Our Energy Future

    Posted by Matt Compton on March 3, 2012 at 6:30 AM EDT

    President Obama talks about how the American auto industry is back and creating cars that are better than ever -- and says we need to fight for a clean energy future that is within our reach.

    Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3

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  • Weekly Wrap Up: A Nation's Gratitude

    Posted by Sarah Berlenbach on March 2, 2012 at 5:43 PM EDT

    Your quick look at this week on WhiteHouse.gov:

    Welcoming the Danish Prime Minister: Five months ago, Helle Thorning-Schmidt became the first female prime minister of Denmark. In the Oval Office on Friday, Prime Minister Thorning-Schmidt joined the President to discuss a range of issues – including counterterrorism cooperation and international security.

    Challenging America’s Governors: At an annual meeting of the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room on Sunday, governors were put up to two challenges—one by the First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Biden and another by President Obama: to take action on the state level to support military spouses and to ensure that all students receive the education and skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow.

    We Demanded Responsibility: Speaking at the United Auto Workers Annual Conference on Tuesday, the President discussed the success of the American auto industry—turning profits, opening new factories, and adding hundreds of thousands of jobs—after being on the edge of collapse three years ago. “Because everyone came together and worked together,” the President explained, “the most high-tech, fuel-efficient, good-looking cars in the world are once again designed and engineered and forged and built – not in Europe, not in Asia – right here in the United States of America.”

    A Nation’s Gratitude: On Wednesday night, President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Dr. Jill Biden welcomed a group of true heroes to the White House. More than 100 men and women who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn were in attendance for a formal dinner both to thank them for their bravery and dedication to their mission on behalf of more than 300 million Americans, as well as to mark the end of the war.

    One Path Forward: Diagram in hand at Nashua Community College in New Hampshire on Thursday, the President spoke about America’s decreasing dependence on foreign oil and the ways in which the federal government is working to address the high costs at the pump. He also renewed his call to repeal the $4 billion in subsidies that taxpayers provide the oil industry each year.

    Want to Go, Play, and Move?: Following over a century of White House tradition, the First Family is gearing up to host the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday April 9. Do you want your family included in the more than 35,000 people who will be joining the First Family on the South Lawn? Enter the online ticket lottery here by 10 am EST on March 5, 2012 for your chance to be part of the games, stories, singing, dancing, and, of course, egg rolling at the White House.

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