Obama touts Solar Power to break U.S. Oil Addiction

clipped from www.worldofphotovoltaics.com President Barack Obama provided a spending boost to the solar and geothermal energy industries on Wednesday and said increased use of the fuels would make America more secure "We know the cost of our oil addiction all too well," Obama said in a speech at Nellis Air Force Base, which is home to the biggest solar electric plant in the Western Hemisphere. "It's the cost measured by the billions of dollars we send to nations with unstable or unfriendly regimes. We help to fund both sides of the war on terror because of our addiction to oil," Obama said, one week before visiting Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, to discuss the nuclear standoff with Iran and reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Obama said the federal government would spend $467 million from the recent $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package to expand and accelerate the development and use of solar and geothermal energy throughout the United States.