Lessons from Nellis

Friday, June 5, 2009 | 3 a.m.

When U.S. presidents visit military installations it is often in connection with wartime preparedness, including the greeting of troops or observation of the newest weapons in the arsenal. But President Barack Obama had a different reason for using the Thunderbird Hangar at Nellis Air Force Base as a backdrop last week.

Obama paid fitting tribute to the base for using what the White House described as the largest solar photovoltaic array in the country.

The 72,000-panel solar installation, which Obama said provides one-fourth of the electricity used by the 12,000 men and women who work at the base, is a sterling example of the innovative ways that clean-burning renewable energy can be harnessed.

“Today, projects like the one at Nellis are still the exception to the rule, unfortunately,” Obama said. “America produces less than 3 percent of our electricity through renewable sources of energy like wind and solar ... We pioneered solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in generating it, even though they get less sun than we do. They certainly get less sun than Nevada.”

It was no mistake that the president chose Nevada to announce more than $467 million in new spending from federal economic stimulus funds to support the development of solar and geothermal energy nationwide. Like many Nevadans, the president recognizes the state’s potential to lead the way in the development and use of renewable energy.

The Obama administration has made it a priority to both rid the U.S. of its addiction to foreign crude oil and reduce harmful emissions from the use of fossil fuels. That makes the political climate ripe for Nevada to show the rest of the country the good that can come from widespread use of solar, geothermal and other forms of alternative energy.