Jimmy Carter, the US President who got renewable energy
Former US President Jimmy Carter died on 29 December 2024 at the age of 100 and his state funeral will take place in Washington D.C. today. Although he may not be remembered as one of the greatest US Presidents, largely due to the crises that occurred during his presidency (most notably the Iranian hostage crisis and the 1979 oil crisis that resulted from revolution in Iran).
Nonetheless, Carter will go down in history as a great statesman. After his presidency ended, he established the Carter Centre in 1982 to further the causes of human rights and the alleviation of human suffering. For this work Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Another area Carter made an outsized impact was in clean energy. Soon after taking office in 1977 Carter implored the American people to waste less energy to reduce the need for fossil fuels. That year Carter also signed legislation establishing the Department of Energy and received the following memo from his chief scientific advisor:
Source: Office of the President
The Global 2000 Report, commissioned by Carter, also warned about the dangers of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when it was published in 1980:
Another environmental problem related to the combustion of fossil fuels (and perhaps also to the global loss of forests. and soil humus) is the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere. Rising CO, concentrations are of concern because of their potential for causing a warming of the earth. Scientific opinion differs on the possible consequences, but a widely held view is that highly disruptive effects on world agriculture could occur before the middle of the twenty-first century.
On 20 June 1979, Carter unveiled 32 solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. At the dedication ceremony Carter said:
"In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy…. 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."
Unfortunately Carter lost the 1980 election and his successor, Republican Ronald Reagan, followed another path to Carter, embracing fossil fuels and ultimately consigning the White House solar panels to museum pieces when he ordered them to be removed in 1986. However given the realities of a warming world we face today, Carter’s presidency offers a tantalising taste of what might have been.