President Promotes Clean Energy and New Technology in State of the Union

Transcript

DELANEY: Obama outlined some lofty goals Ö one million electric cars on the road in four years, for example. He also wants to see 80 percent of the nation's energy coming from renewable sources by 2035. But the president was vague on specific types of energy. He mentioned clean coal and nuclear in the same sentence as solar and wind power.

Franklin and Marshall political science professor Terry Madonna says funding these new goals will be difficult with a tight budget.

MADONNA: I don't think there's going to be sufficient investment in those areas when it's all said and done, that will make a huge difference in education, innovation and technology funding. I just don't see the Republicans allowing a significant increase, if any.

DELANEY: On the other hand, John Stolz, Duquesne's director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education was a little more optimistic. He was hopeful that money for alternative energy and environmental research could come from getting rid of tax dollars to oil companies.

For the Allegheny Front, I'm Ryan Delaney.