Two quotes jumped out at me when I listened to “Meet Obama’s Green Team.”  The first was President-elect Obama’s statement: “There is not a contradiction between sound environmental practices and economic growth.”  Of course, Obama is going to have to say this over and over again, as he says, because for some reason or other doing the economic thing and the sound environmental thing have been at odds for a long, long time.  If we survive as a species, seven generations ahead our progeny will wonder at their ancestors who could have thought otherwise. 

The other quote is by Lisa P. Jackson, the new chair of the EPA. Thanking her husband and kids for what this appointment will mean to them, she says, “Public service often comes at their expense and much less often at their reward.”  I am struck by the stark honesty of what someone truly devoted to the public good must think of holding public offices in these tumultuous times.  Because there are many unscrupulous people in public life, we tend to forget that most are serving at a great personal cost to their lives.  The horrific rancor that is the face of the public arena today, where but few take the time to understand the issues and so must depend on the spokesmen of the extreme, make representing the public in good faith a dreary task at best.

I’ve got one serious comment to make here.  We should be using hemp.  Food, fuel, fiber, and biomass can be harvested at a fantastic rate with the hemp plant.  Let’s start utilizing this valuable plant for all it’s potential.

“..Looks like a change from Big Oil to Big Nuke…”

REAL big leap there Tim Kelly.

The hyperbole measure on that equals the implication that ANY scientist believe that nuclear energy is the ONLY replacement for coals and fossil fuels.

So how did you come to the conclusion (after this 17 minute video) that Obama was making some sort of green light priority to resume nuclear facilities construction, based on some asinine hyperbole that he and/or Dr. Chu believe nuclear energy to be the only replacement for coal and fossil fuels? How many times does Obama (and any member of his team) have to say solar, wind, biofuels, green technology, for you to get that it is an obvious priority here? Those aren’t particularly difficult concepts, and he’s been saying the stuff for 2 years. It’s hard to miss it, even if one isn’t particularly tuned into the mainstream world.

Ah! Maybe you didn’t even bother to watch the video. Do you have something against Dr. Chu perhaps?

Readers of Truthdig know that I am very critical if not leery of soon-to-be President Obama’s neo-imperialist foreign policy statements. I am; however greatly impressed by the audacity of his intention to challenge the Republicans in the Senate to filibuster his domestic and environmental objectives. I hope that Obama will be the David that slays this Goliath.