Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panel Returns To DC

Photo courtesy 350.org. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/4955064094/in/set-72157624849640286/">via Flickr</a>.


Whether Obama wants them or not, Jimmy Carter’s solar panels will soon arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The group 350.org started a campaign in July urging the Obama administration to install solar on the White House. Today the group plans to deliver one of the original panels that the Carter administration erected in 1979 to Obama’s doorstep.

The panels, which eventually found a new home at Unity College in Maine after Ronald Reagan booted them from the West Wing in 1986, are dated but still functional. The group plans to offer one of the 6-by-3 foot panels to the White House, a symbolic move but one the group says could have real significance (they’d actually like him to install a new, more modern set of solar panels). Since the Senate put the kibosh on any hope of passing a climate bill this year, installing solar could still be a strong signal from the White House that it’s serious about action on the issue.

“We’d rather have tough climate legislation, but that’s not happening—not this year, maybe not in a couple years,” said Bill McKibben, an author, activist, and founder of 350 (and frequent Mother Jones contributor). “We have to build a real movement. This is part of it.”

The group also argues that installing new panels will raise public awareness about solar power, McKibben tells me via cell phone as the group rolls down I-95 in a van, en route to the White House. “When Michelle [Obama] planted her garden on the White House lawn, that was one reason seed sales grew the next year,” says McKibben. “This kind of stuff counts. It’s important to get it up there where people can see it.”

The group has requested a meeting with White House staff on Friday to discuss installing new panels on the building, but says they’ve so far received “no commitments one way or the other” from the administration. (Council on Environmental Quality spokesperson Christine Glunz confirmed that the group will meet with “a White House representative” to “discuss support for renewable energy.”) “They keep saying it’s complicated. That’s what we’ve heard so far,” said McKibben. “Everything is complicated,” he continued—but in this case, at least you don’t need 60 votes (a nod, of course, to the threshold to overcome the filibuster in the Senate, a number that has stymied action on climate so far.) They’ve asked for a commitment to install new panels by Oct. 10, which the group has planned as a day of action on climate change.

Of course, you can’t escape the significance of the panel’s origin. McKibben points out that they highlight the fact that solar technology is nothing new; it’s been around for 30 years. But there’s also the Carter factor; I’m guessing he’s not a president that the White House is particularly fond of thinking about these days. I asked whether there’s any concern, heading into what’s expected to be a rough election season, about calling to mind a Democratic president who was voted out of office after just one term. McKibben wasn’t too worried.

“Everybody thinks of [Carter] as ineffective, but he was able to get solar panels,” said McKibben. “It strikes me that this is one of the more popular things he ever did.”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate