Letter: Obama's oil plan's farsighted

In his recent article "Steps to breaking our oil addiction" [Opinion, July 17], Peter Goldmark writes "It will be interesting to see if anyone running for president next year has the foresight and the guts to raise this issue and outline the new policies that will be required."

There will be someone raising these issues if President Barack Obama is in the race. Obama's Recovery Act is among the most ambitious energy legislation efforts in history. It has transformed the Energy Department into a $90 billion venture capitalist outfit, funding unprecedented investments in a smart electricity grid, electric cars, cleaner coal, advanced biofuels and renewable energy. It will triple smart electric meters in our homes, quadruple hybrids in the federal auto fleet, and finance speculative energy research through a new government incubator.

Of course, these initiatives all nurture enterprise and have spawned jobs here in the United States, even if those haven't offset the decade-long terrible job market overall. The initiatives also promise more jobs in the future as they take off as industries in their own right.

I only wish the president would point out his accomplishments a little more proactively.

Craig W. Norris, Amityville