Solar Panels Return to the White House
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President Jimmy Carter, center, surrounded by reporters and photographers as he inspected new White House solar hot water heating system on June 20, 1979. (Harvey Georges - Associated Press)
“In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”
"After nearly three years, the White House began installing solar panels on the First Family’s residence this week," the Washington Post reports. President Jimmy Carter had 32 installed in the late 1970s but President Ronald Reagan removed them in 1986.
Twenty-seven years later, renewable energy returns to the White House roof.
