Before I left the office today, I read an advance excerpt of President Obama's speech to Congress. One line that stuck out was: "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."

I mentioned this one of my colleagues, noting that it seemed like a pretty good and knowing that coming from Obama it would sound even better. I got the feeling we were heading for a powerful speech.

And, sure enough, he delivered tonight.

There is no doubt that despite the many challenges facing our country, the president has a clear vision of where he intends to lead the country. As he said, "It begins with energy."

He called on us to double the supply of renewable energy in three years. He also made renewed commitments to invest in new technologies - like wind and solar - and to produce more plug-in hybrid cars.

And, most significantly for the environment, he called for Congress to pass legislation that will create a "market-based cap on carbon pollution."

To be honest, a few months ago, before I started working at NRDC, I may not have noticed this statement. A what? A cap on carbon? But for people on the front lines of the climate crisis, this is one big step-more like a leap-- forward.

If we truly want to meet the challenges of the 21st century and the climate crisis, we need to innovate and transform America's energy sector. We need the kind of bold vision that pushed America to build our amazing highway system and drove the ingenuity behind the technology boom. A cap (or limit) on carbon pollution can be used to generate investments in renewable energy and move us off of old fossil fuels. The capital from a carbon cap can help create jobs and raise us out of this economic slide.

Of course, the hard work lies ahead. Moving cap-and-trade legislation through Congress will likely be a long and complex process. But it can be done.

As Obama said, this won't be easy. But, in his words, "This is America.  We don't do what's easy.  We do what is necessary to move this country forward."

As he spoke, I thought again how it just sounds different to hear Mr. Obama say this - maybe it's his voice, his confidence or his command of the issues. Maybe it's the hard times. But for me, I can't help but to believe him and to get the feeling that he may just be right.