Nearly forty years after Her Majesty the Queen declined an offer to have a Hills Hoist donated to Buckingham Palace, the family of the 44th President of the United States of America is believed to be enjoying the benefits of green energy with their new rotary style clothesline at the White House. The garden addition sets a wonderful example of living sustainably and knocks American stereotypes of line-drying clothes as the unseemly airing of ‘dirty laundry’.
Hills joins “Right to Dry” advocates around the world in congratulating President Obama in living eco-consciously and leading by example, just as he promised America would in areas of climate change and human rights in his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly. But Barack Obama is not the first President of the United States to leave his mark on the White House for his environmental efforts.
Ahead of his time, President Jimmy Carter (1977-81) famously installed solar panels on the White House roof and set the mansion’s thermostats at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) to save energy.
Unfortunately these efforts were undone when Ronald Reagan (1981-89) entered office and set the tone of his environmental policy by ripping off the solar panels and asserting that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do” and if “you’ve seen one tree you’ve seen them all”.
Hopefully President Obama’s rotary hoist will remain an important stepping stone in the green direction.
And although the Governor General was forced to politely decline Hills’ offer to the Queen in 1959, citing rules governing the acceptance of gifts, we at Hills would be more than happy to assist the First Family with any further line drying requirements.