I wouldn't confuse what Dubya didn't do with what Obama will likely do; two more different personalities could hardly be found. First, Obama is not beholden to the oil and coal industry. Second, he's onboard with no only PO, but shortcomings of industrial agriculture.

The biggest problem with our energy policy has been to lurch from crisis to trance. And what we need is a sustained, serious effort. Now, I actually think the biggest opportunity right now is not just gas prices at the pump but the fact that the engine for economic growth for the last 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20, and that was consumer spending. I mean, basically, we turbo-charged this economy based on cheap credit. ... There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy.

I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
For us to say we are just going to completely revamp how we use energy in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security and drives our economy, that's going to be my number one priority when I get into office

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/10/23/the_full_obama_interview/

If you are claiming that he will do nothing, you are simply making an unsupported pronouncement. Using Rudd as an example doesn't provide us with evidence of how Obama will tackle things. And unlike Clinton, Obama has a Democratic House and Senate. At least let him get into office and get a start before you criticize him for doing nothing.

But the article says that he only favors ethanol as a stopgap measure until ethanol can be sourced from other sources.

For example, Coskata's cellulosic ethanol process is significantly more energy efficient than corn ethanol processes. There is also a cellulosic diesel fuel process which will be demonstrated with a 20 million gallon per year plant starting up here in the U.S. this month which could prove to be a major breakthrough in energy efficiency.

The support for corn ethanol is really limited, and the support for cellulosic biofuels is enhanced, by the Renewable Fuels Standard which was required by the Energy Bill that was passed last year.

Retsel

Woa, how can you expect the guy to implement a climate change policy when he is not even in office yet!!!! The other guy has to pack up and leave first, you know, the climate change denier....

Retsel

Kiashu,
By your criteria, no government ever does anything, they just pass bills, issue directives on pieces of paper or speak words.
Last year the NAB made a profit of $AUD 4 billion, mind you, they didn't do anything to earn that, they just made loans shuffled electrons and pieces of paper. I guess the people they did hire did a lot more than nothing!
What happened to those real workers that used to lean on shovels and dig holes at the side of the road, or peasant farmers that hand dig and plant fields; replaced by bludgers pressing a few buttons or typing instructions on a key-board. Can't understand why our standard of living is higher than most African countries, where fewer can read pieces of paper.