Note to Drudge: Obama building on Bush with solar White House

The Drudge Report links to a story about solar panels being installed at the White House, using a picture of President Jimmy Carter with White House solar panels in an attempt to link the two presidencies:

But before our friends in the right-wing media do the usual and echo Drudge, they should know that long before Obama was even on the national stage President George W. Bush followed in Carter's footsteps and had solar panels installed at the White House (the AP story Drudge links to notes this, but the right wing media often parrots Drudge's distortions without clicking through). From the New York Times, February 27, 2003:

Since September, a grid of 167 solar panels on the roof of a maintenance shed has been delivering electricity to the White House grounds. Another solar installation has been helping to provide hot water. Yet another has been keeping the water warm in the presidential pool.

It's also worth noting that President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, utilized “passive-solar” technology, described by the Department of Energy as a way that "[y]our home's windows, walls, and floors can be designed to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer."