In separate sit-down interviews at the ServiceNation presidential forum at Columbia University on Thursday, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama spoke extensively about volunteerism and community service in commemoration of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. However, of the two presidential hopefuls, Obama was the only one to mention energy policy or green-themed volunteer programs. Asked what his response to the World Trade Center attacks would have been if he were president at the time, Obama said he would have called on Americans “to meet some great challenges,” including increasing the country’s energy independence. “We’re going to have a bold energy plan that says that we are going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 20 or 30 percent over the course of a decade or two.” Obama also alluded to his “Green Vet” initiative to train returning soldiers for jobs in the green economy and said that as president he’d create a “clean energy corps” modeled on AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps. “I want to create an energy corps, a clean energy corps that can mobilize individual citizens to help create greater energy efficiency in our country.”
