Robert Kennedy speaks at Eco Expo in St. Louis
The two-day event showcased sustainable ideas.
Published April 17, 2009
Robert Kennedy Jr. spoke at the St. Louis Science Center as part of a cavalcade of speakers at Eco Expo, a two-day event that will showcase products, services, guest speakers and ideas that are environmentally sustainable.
In his hour-long address, entitled “Our Environmental Destiny,” Kennedy spoke to several hundred people about the future of sustainable energy in the U.S. and the importance of and economic potential associated with having an efficient and clean energy grid. Kennedy said the chief impediments to creating such a system are corporate control and federal subsidies that go to “dirty” energy industries, like the coal industry.
“Corporations are designed to plunder,” Kennedy said. “Corporations don’t want the same things for America as Americans.”
Kennedy said $3.6 billion in stimulus money went to the coal industry, a figure that is the tip of the iceberg due to hidden subsidies of the coal industry.
Kennedy said the solution to these problems lies in creating a national “smart grid” utilizing clean and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, of which the U.S. has plenty.
“We have enough harnessable energy in North Dakota and Texas to generate 100 percent of our energy needs,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said creating such a grid would end dependence on foreign oil, create a national market for clean energy, and allow Americans to sell energy gathered and stored in their homes to each other and to utility companies.
“What we need to do is create an energy marketplace that makes every American into an entrepreneur,” Kennedy said.
Additionally, a national smart grid would allow utility companies to plug directly into private homes via an Internet connection and manage appliances to avoid blackouts during peak energy usage, and private businesses could develop the infrastructure required to build the grid.
Kennedy said the cost of a national smart grid would be $750 billion, but it would be a “one-time expenditure” and would require a massive industrial mobilization reminiscent of World War II.
“We have the capacity to do this,” Kennedy said.
St. Louis resident Jane Venditte said she was motivated by Kennedy’s speech.
“I think that it’s a wonderful thing to always be dispelling myths and also helping build general understanding and enthusiasm about the movement in general,” Venditte said
