Obama's Speech & A White House Farmer

The Obama budget and green recovery.

This is The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.

President Barack Obama outlines his budget tonight before a joint-session of Congress. The stimulus package included money for saving energy, pursuing alternative energy.

Robert Heilmayr is a research analyst with World Resources Institute. He says the Obama administration realizes there are long term payoffs in investing in green jobs and becoming more energy efficient-- energy independent.

((( “The key next step that I think is missing and I’ll really be paying attention to as Obama addresses Congress is whether he recognizes the stimulus is only the first step, that comprehensive energy and climate policy is necessary and should be a priority moving forward as a follow-up to the stimulus is a big question.”

The President will present his budget address to Congress tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern.

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The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to come up with new ways to protect people from air pollution.
Reporter Alex Heuer (Hoy-er) explains how pollution could be regulated in the future.
(Heuer-Study :48 …soc.)
Air pollution comes from a lot of places and it affects us in a lot of different ways. Scientists know how much there is, but what they don’t always know is how it affects our health.
Greg Carmichael is from the University of Iowa. He is one of the researchers working on the project.
(Carmichael2 :07 Does one sort of particle have a different health outcome than another, is one particle more dangerous than another.)
Carmichael says if we knew that sulfur from power plants was worse pollution to breathe than pollution from diesel trucks, that could mean the government might want to have stricter regulations on power plants.
(Carmichael3 :09 The bottom line is that we want to protect our society as much as we can from the health impacts of air pollution.)
The EPA will use this study and others to rethink how it regulates air pollution. In the end, they hope the study will help us live longer.
For the Environment Report, I’m Alex Heuer.


((((STING)))

LESTER:
This is The Environment Report.
So… some people want President Obama to plant a garden. Now… he’s a little busy… so maybe the White House needs a farmer.
Shawn Allee hear about this idea.
Shawn, a White House Farmer, huh?
**
- people like Michael Pollon think there’s space on the white house lawn to make a big organic garden
- he proposed the idea back in the fall.
- her’es NPR’s Terry Gross grilling him about it.
GROSS: You would like the next president to instead of having a White House lawn to basically have a White House garden. The president would set an example for the rest of us by having this garden of locally-grown foods?
POLLON: Now why is that preposterous, Terry? I mean, that's actually one of the more practical things I proposed.
LESTER: How does he get off saying this?
- part of Pollon’s idea that all of us should eat food grown as close to home as possible
– save energy for transportation
- heathier
- and there’s precedent
- sheep on the white house lawn during WWI

- Eleanor Roosevelt had a sizable garden during WWII
LESTER: so, is the idea going anywhere
- not officially.
- Obama hasn’t publicly endorsed the idea
- but people who like Pollon’s idea made an online contest to look for a White House farmer
LESTER: Who won the contest?
- Claire Strader, from Madison WI
- she does community gardening there
- again, unofficial contest – but was curious
- she’s proud of the work she does
–I asked - could she go to DC and leave her wo it for the President?
STRADER: It would be difficult to pick up and leave it behind, but it would be a tremendous honor and a lot of potential to spread the good word of organic agriculture and the positive impacts that would have on our country in the future. It would be hard to accept and hard to reject.
Well she’d have a lot of lawn at the White House to farm.