Obama administration gets in gear to sell its energy agenda

The White House is organizing a series of events in the coming weeks to sell the energy agenda President Obama laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and other administration officials will meet with business owners at an event Monday where the White House will launch its “Startup America” campaign. The initiative will focus on “promoting high-growth entrepreneurship across the country with new initiatives to help encourage private sector investment in job-creating startups, accelerate research, and address barriers to success for entrepreneurs and small businesses,” according to the White House.

On Tuesday, Obama plans to meet with business owners from the tech industry and hold a cabinet meeting to discuss the campaign. Obama will then travel to Penn State’s University Park campus on Wednesday to discuss energy innovation. And on Friday, Obama’s economic advisers will update a 2009 report on innovation.

In his State of the Union address, Obama called for getting 80 percent of the country’s electricity by 2035 from “clean energy” sources like renewables, nuclear, coal with carbon-capture technology and natural gas. He offered no detail on how he might implement such a goal and Energy Secretary Steven Chu was equally vague on a call with reporters Friday.

Still, the proposal is already causing a buzz on Capitol Hill, where liberal Democrats who have long criticized proposals to incentivize coal and nuclear power have seemingly warmed to the prospect. But Republicans, some of whom have floated very similar proposals in the past, fear that Obama will give preference to renewable energy over other energy sources.

But Chu, on the call Friday, said, “This clean energy standard is not picking favorites.”