In 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House and introduced an ambitious solar strategy to Congress. This came on the heels of the oil shocks of the 1970s caused first by the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab states and then the Iranian Revolution — both Middle East crises that reverberated across the globe due to the region’s central role in energy markets. 

Speaking of the new equipment, Carter said, “A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people: harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.” 

Just imagine the world we would live in today if we had taken the latter path. We would be decades ahead on renewable energy development, likely the world’s leading producer of affordable renewable energy products. Most of our industries and households could run on renewable power. As Thomas Friedman put it, America could have become the “Saudia Arabia of solar panels.” Human-driven causes of climate change would be dramatically slowed or even halted thanks to green energy advances, so we would face less extreme weather and enjoy a healthier atmosphere. 

And our economy........

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