What Would Captain Planet Do?

9,000 gallons of fuel or a speech about conservation? Tough call

Posted in Climate Change, Politics by Dakota on April 25, 2009

Earth Day was a few days ago and to commemorate the occasion President Obama went to Newton, Iowa to deliver a speech about the importance of environmental conservation and the development of alternative energies.

I think everyone can agree that those are important topics, however, to get to Iowa the President used 9,000 gallons fuel. I have to seriously question whether the speech was worth such a large carbon footprint and whether it was necessary to put symbolism ahead of the environment?

It’s long been a tradition on Earth Day for presidents to jet off somewhere for a high profile speech, but I think it’s time for a change. Every year, on Earth Day, the president should deliver a webcast from the comforts of the Oval Office. Maybe then I could believe we had a leadership that genuinely understood the asperities of our environmental situation.

If you would like to read more about the president’s Earth Day trip and how the fuel consumption was calculated, please take a look at this story from CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/track/rss/blogs/2009/04/22/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4962384.shtml



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  1. Dakota Said,

    April 22, 2009 5:09 PM
    Obama Earth Day Flights Burned More Than 9,000 Gallons Of Fuel
    Posted by Mark Knoller

    It happens every time a president leaves town to make an Earth Day speech. Reporters scramble to point out how much fuel was expended so the President could talk about conserving energy and using alternative fuels.

    In flying to and from Iowa today, President Obama took two flights on Air Force One and four on Marine One.

    The press office at Andrews AFB wouldn’t give me the fuel consumption numbers for the 747 that serves as Air Force One without the approval of the White House Press Office, which as I write this has yet to be given.

    But Boeing says its 747 burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile. It’s 895 miles from Washington to Des Moines, so a round trip brings the fuel consumption for the fixed-wing portion of the President’s trip to 8,950 gallons.

    The trip also put President Obama on Marine One for round-trip flights between the White House and Andrews AFB and between Des Moines International Airport and Newton, Iowa, site of his Earth Day speech. It totaled about an hour of flight time. The VH-3D that serves as Marine One consumes about 1200 pounds of fuel per hour which comes out to about 166 gallons consumed flying the President today.

    Not included in these calculations are the presidential vehicles that took him the short distance from the landing zone in Newton to the event site at the Trinity Structural Towers Manufacturing Plant.

    In his speech there, President Obama called for a “new era of energy exploration in America.”

    At a plant that manufactures the towers for wind turbines, he urged Americans to support his plan for promoting expanded use of alternative and renewable fuels.

    And he announced that for the first time, the Interior Department would be leasing federal waters for projects to generate electricity from wind and ocean currents.

    President Obama could have saved at least 9,116 gallons of fuel by giving his speech at the White House – but no wind turbines are manufactured here.

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