Pres. Obama and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu potentially see a fair amount of green in the lighter shades of white. Photo art by Michelle.

If President Obama has his way, your personal property might get a blanching.  Compared to a horse of a different color, it’s really not that outlandish.  This past Tuesday at a climate change symposium in London hosted by the Prince of Wales, Mr. President expressed his interest in painting rooftops and roadways an “energy-reflecting white”.  U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu explained that by painting roads and flat roofs a lighter color it could have a similar energy-saving effect as taking every car worldwide off the road for a whopping eleven years.

As stated in this article, Secretary Chu rationalized that, “It was a geo-engineering scheme that was “completely benign” and would keep buildings cooler and reduce energy use from air conditioning, as well as reflecting sunlight back away from the Earth.

For people who found white hard on the eye, scientists had also developed “cool colours” which looked to the human eye like normal ones, but reflect heat like pale colours even if they are darker shades.

And painting cars in cool or light colours could deliver considerable savings on energy use for air conditioning units, he said.”

Reducing energy costs while saving the planet sounds like a bright idea.  My question is, where will they get the green to go green?  The U.S. Treasury is broke; hopefully, this won’t be a blinding initiative that will break the backs of taxpayers.  Or, maybe this plan for global whitewashing will end washed up.