Obama Finally Talks Climate Change; Green Industry Wants More

Obama Finally Talks Climate Change; Green Industry Wants More

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In celebrating his reelection, President Obama finally touched on a topic that he and Republican rival Mitt Romney rarely broached during the campaign: Climate change. During his acceptance speech, Obama make a strong play to win over the green sector, ranking environmental action high up on his priority list. “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet,” he said, adding that “freeing ourselves from foreign oil” would be a top challenge.

Now, Obama needs to work with Congress to renew clean-energy tax incentives and implement funding for federal agencies that work with the green-tech sector, said Lisa Jacobson, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. The president should also push for an investment tax credit for offshore wind projects and more discretionary spending to support innovation, a strategy that would create “millions of new clean economy jobs,” said David Foster, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance.