Who, with a rational mind, calls a "reduction of greenhouse gas emissions" at the rate of 00.25 percent a year (a mere ten percent over a total of forty years) a "significant down payment"?
No one. So, in spite of the rhetorical language that Obama used, the factual information amounts to a minuscule so-called "down payment".
And is it worth it??
"In the US alone, the federal government gave US$72 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry between 2002 and 2008, according to a study by the Environmental Law Institute."
Yes true. Is it significant? $72 billion over six years amounts to $12 billion a year - TO THE ENTIRE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY.
Yet Exxon-Mobile alone payed $116.2 billion in taxes in 2008 alone - all by itself.
As usual, Obama is pandering to the ignorant and offering a smokescreen of snake oil that will never deliver a significant reduction in "green gas emissions" or greater energy security.
My point Muli, is that the fossil fuel industry is subsidized even greater than alternative energies.
That is my point, no more no less.
I have no answers for you beyond what the article said.