A quick look at the State of (climate and energy in) the Union
A simple word cloud gives a good overview of President Obama’s third State of the Union address (and, no, I didn’t tell Wordle to make “energy” stick out the top of the graphic). “Job” or “jobs” clocked 40 mentions, while “energy” appeared 23 times … that captures the biggest themes of the speech. “Clean” came up 11 times. But a call to end subsidies for oil and extend tax breaks for renewables was set against an endorsement of an “all of the above” energy strategy, including expanded domestic oil drilling and natural gas fracking.
Notable, if not frequent, mentions include “climate change” (once, which is once more than last year) and “environment” (also just one utterance). Of course, any excitement over the fact that Pres. Obama actually managed to spit out the words “climate change” (there was some uncharacteristic stumbling involved) is tempered by the fact that it came in the context of admitting the divide in Congress is too deep to allow any action on the issue.
A mixed bag, to be sure.
What did you think of President Obama’s speech? If you missed it, you can find the full text here.