I just had to point this out ’cause it made me laugh. President Obama had a Q&A session Sunday with reporters about Friday’s House vote on the U.S. clean energy bill. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Carol Browner, the White House coordinator on energy and climate policy, also sat in. First, I urge you to read the Q&A, which was published online by the New York Times. It never ceases to amaze me how knowledgeable and well-spoken Obama is on the energy file. He truly *gets it*.

At one point in the interview, Chu made the following comment:

Well, I just want to reiterate what the President said in terms of how do you prepare the United States for the future — with some reasonable certainty we’re going to be looking towards higher oil and gas prices 10, 20 years from today. I think what the contractors are finding out about the climate, especially in the last five years, we will be looking at a carbon constrained economy, whether it’s two years from now or 10 years from now.

So this is an opportunity for the United States to say that’s where the puck is going to be — to quote Wayne Gretzky — 10 or 20 years from now this is where it’s going to be, so why don’t we meet in this new industrial revolution, meaning that we’re going to get energy, abundant energy, the clean energy. So we have the ability to lead.

Obama then chimes in:

I just want to point out my Secretary of Energy used a *very cool* Wayne Gretzky metaphor.

Then Chu continues:

You know, here’s this skinny kid who is arguably the greatest hockey player in the world. And they say how — and he says, I position myself on the ice. Well, how do you do it? I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been. And so for decades we’ve been trying to figure out how to — you know, this is where we wanted it — do we want it back to 1950? Well, it isn’t going to be back to 1950. And so this bill begins to say to America this is where it’s going to be and so why don’t we take the industrial lead on this.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the “where the puck is going to be” line in Canadian political speeches, particularly as it relates to energy. It’s become somewhat cliche here in Canada, so to hear Chu saying it kind of made me chuckle. Gretzky, of course, is a great Canadian. It’s ironic, given that the Canadian federal government appears to have lost sight of the puck.

NOTE: Apologies for the original post. Had meant to upload President-elect Obama’s photo as the sixth dancer but forgot.

What better way to bring in the new year than to have venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, incoming Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, former VP Al Gore, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens come together and shake their greentech groove thang.

Click here for the goods. (BTW: This Web video will self-destruct on Jan. 15)

Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with me and each other. Best wishes in 2009!

Tyler

Taken alone, I should be happy that my federal government wants to begin serious talks with the United States about establishing a continental cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. Fact is, I was expecting this kind of knee-jerk reaction from my government as soon as Barack Obama got elected to the White House. It’s why, as a Canadian, I’m so encouraged by Obama’s win. His aggressive energy and environmental policies will force a laggard like Canada to act after years of being hip-connected with the Bush administration’s policy of half-measures and inaction. (more…)

President Obama won’t be perfect, but with good intentions and an acute awareness of the problems facing Americans and the planet, he’s the right man for this job at this time. He won’t deliver on all expectations, but all anyone can ask is that he try.

Here’s, hopefully, to eight years of positive transition. Americans have every right to be proud of this moment.

My Clean Break column today argues that Ontario needs to act fast on green-economy building if it hopes to keep up with a re-energized America under a green-driven Obama administration. The province needs to announce a bold, comprehensive green strategy within the next six month and it has to market it aggressively at home, across the border and overseas. This is no longer about adding renewable energy to the grid. It’s about creating a sustainable industrial strategy that will create green-collar jobs and bring Ontario’s manufacturing sector into the 21st century. It’s also not just about climate change. It’s about energy and economic security. To quote a comment made last week by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “If you don’t change today you will get buried by the change.”