ARCADIA
Someone asked me if Barack Obama has an aura.
No aura, that I could see, but he does have a presence.
Even walking down a hot, dirt road in Arcadia, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up, and his tie flapping in the breeze, you look at him and say, “There’s the president.”
He projects a cool, calm, studious persona.
Obama arrived at the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center on Tuesday by motorcade. He had flown to Arcadia on-board Marine One from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
Obama stepped from that dirt road into the midst of the solar array — stepped out of sight because those panels are taller than he is.
But seconds later he climbed up on a platform, where a small, invited crowd could see him as he looked around at the technology.
Those in the crowd numbering about 100 — Florida Power & Light officials and workers, and area political and civic leaders, mostly — were the lucky ones.
Many others would have liked to have seen the president, based on calls to the newsroom that I took, but the visit to a carefully guarded, high-technology area way out in the country made that a challenge.
But for those persistent enough, supporters and detractors alike, it was possible to catch a glimpse of the presidential motorcade as it drove up U.S. 17.
Some questioned whether spending more than $150 million on the Arcadia facility that will supply all of 3,000 homes makes any sense.
I think it does. It’s an investment in the future.
But considering that this is the largest photovoltaic solar array in the United States, we can see that there is a long way to go.
As Obama noted in Arcadia, solar energy is not the total answer to a clean energy future, and it will take opening many more solar energy centers to begin making a dent in the country’s needs.
Part of the solution will also include clean coal, safe nuclear, sustainably grown biofuels and energy harnessed from the wind and the waves, he said.
It’s an equation that interests local residents not only because Arcadia is so close, but because oil interests are waging a campaign to open up more of the Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling.
There is also a global race under way to improve and make solar technology more efficient and cheaper. To the victor will go the spoils.
Obama congratulated Arcadia and FPL, and said America is on the cusp of a clean energy future.
But any great endeavor starts somewhere, and Arcadia may one day be remembered as that place.
James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.
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