DEC 30

Considering how long they've had to do this, it's pretty freaking amazing...the Obama administration, at Change.gov, has just put up an online question asking and rating system that is, really, quite robust and useful.

Of course, I will direct you immediately to the Energy and Environment section, where the top rated questions have to do with intercity rail projects (excellent), distributed power (excellent) and  renewables vs. nuclear (excellent).

All excellent questions! It makes you realize that Americans aren't...well...quite as stupid as the rest of the world assumes we are. Going down the list, in fact, I see a whole lot of really intelligent questions concerning our energy and environmental future. The Obama "team" plans to answer some of the top-rated questions in the new year.

The questions range from extremely broad to extremely specific, and from energy issues to preserving habitat for predators in Alaska. And some of the questions are extremely poignant and important, like this one:

"What types of serious and effective incentives will the new administration propose to force China, India and other major polluters into compliance with environmental agreements such as Kyoto 2 (or even less stringent regulations)?"

Whoo...that's a doozy...

But it's worth clicking through and seeing how many EcoGeeks there are out there asking intelligent questions and, more than anything, actually interested in being a part of the political process. Nothing like an intelligent discussion of energy policy straight from the mouths of Americans (and filtered with a Web 2.0 application)  to make me believe in America again.

Comments (6)

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Please vote for this question
written by Mark Bartosik, December 30, 2008

Energy labeling: Will you extend federal rules to require the majority of electronic devices to be labeled with the amount of electricity they use. This has already been a huge success with refrigerators, and will help focus public debate.

search for the word 'refrigerators', there's only 3 questions with that word.

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written by Clinch, December 30, 2008

This reminds of the official-government-petition site for the English government, when it first went online, everyone was excited, thinking the people could change the country for good, but nothing came of it in the end, except a (seemingly automated) response of why the petition was rejected, and why the government decided to do what they originally wanted to do anyway.

Also, a lot of these questions should have been asked during the election, and to both candidates, or should already be answered in some kind of mission statement of the party.

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Uh no it doesn't
written by Ben, December 31, 2008

It makes you realize that Americans aren't...well...quite as stupid as the rest of the world assumes we are.

Uh, sorry, but, no, it doesn't actually, it doesn't even start to make up for the amount of stupid America has been putting out for the last 8 years, let alone the rest.

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written by Margaret Bruce, December 31, 2008

I have enjoyed browsing through the Obama Change.org questions website and have posed a few and voted for a few myself. Yes, it is encouraging that there are so many thoughtful questions. It is also sobering that this represents a TINY fraction of 'the people' - most of whom are busy trying to make ends meet or who don't care about any of this stuff.
It will be very important for the Obama team to follow up and follow through, lest this become a superficial or irrelevant excercise and he and his team lose credibility and diminish their capacity to lead.
I am sure I'm not the only one hoping for, and working for the best, but watching to see what will really happen.

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stupid
written by James, December 31, 2008

Ben,

I can only hope you meant to be ironic with your comment. It's so poorly written as to be incomprehensible, and shows that you fit in the category you want to denounce. Please, it really DOES matter HOW you express yourself! That goes for Mr. Green as well, who regularly writes with spelling mistakes, and garbled grammar.

Intelligence starts with being able to at the very least USE your spell checker, edit yourself, and take a minute to care whether others can read your ideas.

As for the site, seems like a good idea, and one that hopefully will help vindicate my vote for Obama.

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written by Fred, June 26, 2009

this needs to be advertised more so that more people are aware of the resource sat hand

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