Because of higher costs and technical barriers to widespread clean energy adoption, efforts to move the U.S. energy system away from fossil fuels towards clean energy alternatives inevitably comes with a significant price tag.
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Second, the President should lead the charge for reorganizing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and reforming the National Labs system to spur clean energy innovation and enhance implementation of technologies from research to market.
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Do I want to invest in our people, in our middle class and making it stronger, and our infrastructure and our education system and clean energy -- is that one vision or are we just going to keep on doing the same things that got us into this mess in the first place?
Along with investments in health care education, clean energy and a 21st century financial system that protects consumers and our economy, rebuilding our infrastructure is one of the keys to our future prosperity.
We should be building an affordable power system based on our abundant clean energy from the wind, waves and sun.
On the other side, there are those who have long advocated for nuclear power -- including many Republicans -- who have to recognize that we're not going to achieve a big boost in nuclear capacity unless we also create a system of incentives to make clean energy profitable.
Aldly said government support of industries in clean energy, defined broadly, is part of transforming the energy system and bringing down the cost of alternative energy.
The Administration is also working to improve our education system, to promote the transition to a clean energy economy, and to foster faster productivity growth through greater innovation.
Orbital debris could block all these benefits for centuries and prevent us from developing clean energy sources like space solar power satellites, exploring our Solar System and someday making humanity a multi-planetary civilization capable of surviving true climatic catastrophes.
Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, sparking a clean energy revolution, transforming American health care, creating the best education system in the world -- that's our future.
There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy -- when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs.
Investing in clean energy technology and improving the efficiency of buildings, cars and transportation system will create whole new industries, and as these flourish, there will be new demand for professions and skills of all types, producing new jobs that will drive our economic recovery.
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Since most clean-energy projects have a payback period of more than five years, the system thus fails to encourage green investment.
Quite often, the barriers to clean energy are not financial, but rather the bureaucratic red tape put forward by a system that was designed for an outmoded energy paradigm.
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And one of the things that my budget is designed to do is, by fixing our education system, by reducing costs of health care, by going after the clean-energy jobs of the future, trying to put our economy on a more solid footing.
All Very Serious People knew that you could not reduce carbon emissions or drive clean energy innovation without a price on carbon, either through a carbon tax or a cap and trade system.
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