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The only solar-powered White House was Jimmy Carter's. The peanut farmer from Virginia who suggested the nation pull on their sweaters was, for decades, the only outspoken proponent of energy efficiency to hold the high office. He was also the only prez to drop solar on the roof—but that looks like it's finally about to change.
After the oil crisis of the 70s and those infamously long lines at the gas stations, Carter made a show of slapping solar panels and a solar water heater atop the presidential residence. At the time, Carter said that the panels would "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.”
It was a symbolic moment for a burgeoning new energy industry—solar power was a shining new technology, and those rooftop panels represented the promise of a cleaner, more sustainable future.
Then oil prices dropped and Ronald Reagan took them down. The White House remained solar panel-free throughout the 80s, the 90s, and the 00s. Then Barack Obama took office, once again talking a green game. But, while he campaigned on a platform that included reducing carbon emissions and creating green jobs—there was that rise of the oceans slowing comment—his clean energy policies soon ran into trouble in Congress.
After intense, coordinated efforts from conservatives, the climate problem that had seemed so universal and pressing in 2007 became a highly partisan affair by 2009. By 2010, global warming, to hear the right tell it, was suddenly a massive liberal hoax. The climate bill Obama had backed fell apart in Congress. And 2010, unfortunately, was the year that environmentalist Bill McKibben decided to put some pressure on the administration, and called publicly for the panels to be returned to the rooftops.
McKibben and a band of student activists drove the old uninstalled silicon down to the White House and asked for a meeting with the president. They were rebuffed. Eventually, Stephen Chu, then Obama's Energy Secretary, announced he would refit the White House with solar. But a year went by, and it didn't happen. Then another.
Then it was full-on election season, and solar, in the eyes of mainstream political consultants, was tainted by Solyndra and conservative attacks on 'energy taxes', and it seemed like a solar-powered White House was out of the question.
But now, in 2013, after 34 years, it looks like the panels are coming back. The White House announced that construction of a brand new solar system has begun above the Obama residence.
For his part, McKibben doesn't seem embittered by the delay.
“No one should ever have taken down the panels Jimmy Carter put on the roof. But it's very good to know that once again the country's most powerful address will be drawing some of that power from the sun," he said in a statement. "Better late than never."