Barack

New York Times Robert Franzese Jeff Zeleny Current Event 3 Oct. 27, 2009 SC PS1-Fall 09 Obama Promotes ‘Smart-Grid’ Project This article is about how President Barack Obama plans on spending 3.4 billion dollars from the seven hundred and eighty-seven billion dollar stimulus package on projects that would help create a clean energy economy. On Tuesday, October twenty-seventh, President Obama gave a 13 minute speech in Arcadia, Florida talking about how a modern electrical grid would allow people to have better control over their electrical costs, and also reduce the country’s dependency on foreign sources of energy. He also discussed how there would be opposition from special interest groups and lobbyists in Washington who are interested in things other then what the American people are interested in. President Obama warned about the opposition by stating, “There are those who are also going to suggest that moving towards a clean energy futures going to somehow harm the economy or lead to fewer jobs, and they’re going to argue that we should do nothing, stand pat, do less or delay action yet again.” I don’t believe the author made it clear either way how they felt about the topic. I believe that the author wrote this article because renewable energy resources are something that we should further investigate and possibly contribute more money to. The idea that the energy resources we are using now are running low or are not healthy for the environment makes it a pressing issue. I believe that the author provided information for both sides fairly well. Not only did they give the side of the President and his supporters, but they also included bits about the opposition, like how the author brought up that President Obama didn’t mention the high costs of solar energy during his speech, and that after the speech, “he passed through a large scrum of protesters gathered along the road.” I thought that this was a good article and very well written. I would have liked it if they would have went a little further into just how much solar energy would cost instead of just saying that it is high, but I think this article was written more as a report of a speech and not so much as a discussion of whether or not solar energy is a good or bad thing. Since there really isn’t much to agree or disagree with, I will just say that I do believe that using stimulus money on projects that will help make solar energy a more usable source would be good for the economy because it would be creating jobs that wouldn’t go away until the sun stops rising or they find a better energy source which would then create more jobs. I chose this article because renewable energy is a high concern for me, and again like I have been after every current event summary. I am very pleased that the President is who he is.