During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, a much maligned President, unappreciated then and now, we had the oil embargo brought on by the Arabs in the Middle East, and Carter decided to promote the concept of solar panels as a better form of long term energy supply than oil, natural gas and coal, seeing the need for a change in US energy policy. This included the establishment of the Energy Department as a new cabinet position.
So Carter arranged in 1979 for installation of solar panels on the White House, a great symbol of our need to change our energy policies.
But seven years later, after much ridicule by the administration of his successor, Ronald Reagan, the solar panels were taken off the White House, as Reagan made clear that he was going to be captive to the oil and coal industries, and concern himself only with their profits, and ignore conservation and the environment, thus helping to accelerate the global warming and climate change crisis, which even now, the Republican Party refuses to accept as reality!
But now, 27 years later, President Barack Obama has reinstalled solar panels, repudiating Reagan and backing Carter in his vision of the energy and environmental future of solar power.
This is to be commended, although the powerful oil, natural gas, and coal industries will continue their lobbying, as their only goal is profit, not concern over the future of the planet.
So the battle over future energy supplies and climate change continues unabated, as the GOP proves yet again, their lack of concern for the long term future, only concerned about capitalistic profit in the present! It is as if they have their heads in the sand, and live in a world of illusion!