The following excerpt from President Obama’s second inaugural address comes from the transcript provided by the White House. In the entirety of the address, this paragraph represents the lone mention of energy or climate change. Here it is:
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. (Applause.) Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.
The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise. That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure — our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
What happens with climate change, either by legislation or presidential fiat, remains to be seen over the course of the next four years. The dearth of climate change discussion in the presidential race between President Obama and former Governor Romney was noticeable. Whether the public’s appetite for action on this front is commensurate with the tenor of the president’s speech also leaves much to be the next quadrennial.
[Image source]
