That Banner, That Ship. Remember?

Sunrise, Sunset

Speaking of anniversaries, most media folks apparently missed the 29th anniversary this week of President Jimmy Carter's installation of a solar water-heating system on the White House roof.

A couple of months later, Carter used the solar panels as a prop to warn about the damage of "crippling dependence on foreign oil" and to assert that "there is simply no longer any question that solar energy is feasible and cost-effective."

Carter said his goal was for the country to generate 20 percent of its power from the sun and other renewable sources by 2000, with solar energy accounting for about a third of that. In January 1980, in today's dollars, home heating oil cost around $2.50 a gallon.

Most of Carter's ambitious tax-incentive plan went nowhere as energy prices plummeted and the Reagan administration, saying it was no longer handpicking new energy technologies for federal support, pulled the plug on alternative-energy programs and subsidies. The Reagan folks removed the White House solar panels in 1986. That winter, home heating oil was down to around $1.50 a gallon in today's dollars.

The energy-conscious Bush administration, however, had solar panels installed again in 2002 to provide electricity for the grounds, another set for hot water and another for the presidential pool.

"We thought if we were able to reduce our energy consumption, that was a positive step forward," National Park Service Architect James Doherty told the New York Times in early 2003.

Solar power now accounts for less than 1 percent of the nation's energy needs. Home heating oil in March was at $3.56 a gallon.

Hope for the Orange-Jumpsuit Set

Possible good news for the nation's convicted felons. The Justice Department, much criticized as running a creaky pardon program, has appointed Ronald L. Rodgers, head of its drug intelligence unit, as pardon attorney.

Rodgers replaces Roger Adams, who resigned last month after a lengthy investigation of his office by Justice's inspector general.

Rodgers, who was a top-ranking military judge, may not have the warm-and-fuzzy background our felons might like. But he could bring order to a program that our former colleague George Lardner Jr ., now with the Center for the Study of the Presidency, recently reported to be "in complete disarray," with a huge backlog of 2,501 pardon requests at the beginning of this year.

Doubtless the vast majority will be denied -- they always are -- and, Lardner reports, Bush has been exceptionally loath to grant them. But this is the last year of the administration, Christmas is coming, and everyone's waiting to see if Bush, who commuted the prison sentence of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, will give him a full pardon.

On the Collaring of Criminals

Speaking of Libby's sentence reduction, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who originally sentenced Libby to 2 1/2 years, raised some eyebrows when he questioned whether Bush's move had undercut the idea that justice should be equal.

Bush called Walton's sentence excessive, noting Libby's "exceptional public service" and clean record.

Walton, in an interview Tuesday with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich, said Bush "has the authority and exercised it, and that is to be respected." But "the downside is there are a lot of people in America who think that justice is determined to a large degree by who you are and that what you have plays a large role in what kind of justice you receive . . . It is crucial that the American public respect the rule of law, or people won't follow it."

Walton said the penalty he gave Libby was at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines. "I don't give white-collar criminals a pass," he told the Journal Sentinel.

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this column.