[Graeme]

George W. Bush touts wind-power legacy at Dallas convention

Former President George W. Bush touted his wind-power legacy at the Windpower 2010 convention Tuesday and framed his presidency as one of tough decisions he'll explore in his upcoming book.

Bush said the renewable-resource push he helped usher in as governor of Texas and later as president will result in "a day when my grandkids will be driving electric cars" that use electricity from wind and other sources as the nation moves away from its oil addiction.

"There's a big difference [between] the talkers and the doers," Bush told several thousand attendees. "Here in Texas, we're the doers."

dallasnews

[Plantagenet]

Looks like part of Bush's legacy is the massive build out of clean wind power in Texas while part of Obama's legacy is the largest offshore oil spill in US history.

How ironic.

[Graeme]

He could make amends if he focuses on the other environmental disaster:

Will eco-disasters destroy Obama's legacy?

Obama is the first president in history to articulate in stark terms both the why and how of the sustainable clean energy vision. Last April, he said, "The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline." In October, he said at MIT, "There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy -- when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs."

Obama needs to take charge of the spill response, yes. But more important, he needs to communicate to Americans that the disaster was ultimately caused by our addiction to fossil fuel -- and to make it clear that we face a far greater disaster if we don't start working toward ending that addiction. In short, it's time to move away from the dirty, unsafe fuels of the 19th century and to embrace the clean safe fuels of the 21st century that never run out.

salon