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During his State of the Union address last night, President Barack Obama called for 80 percent of American households to get their electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. The president referred to the U.S.’s pursuit of renewable energy as its “Sputnik moment”, invoking the anxiety the nation felt as Russia began to surpass the U.S. in space exploration. The challenge of getting to 80 percent renewables in the next 14 years, however, is nearly as daunting as launching the first man into space.

The president encouraged continued aggressive government funding of research and projects to meet the 2035 goal. Missing from the speech was any mention of climate change, cap and trade and other controversial issues closely tied to the clean energy issue. Obama also indicated that in addition to wind and solar, nuclear power, natural gas and clean coal will have to play a role in the nation’s energy future. The jury is still out on whether clean coal, or the practice of coal carbon emissions deep in the earth, is or even successful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

While the goal setting is promising, a lack of action on federal policy on greenhouse gas emissions to drive private and public investment in clean energy technology is going to make meeting the goal next to impossible.