Our nation better wake up and smell the coffee. With all our bail outs along with the 168 billion economic stimulus package, that btw did nothing for our economy it is hard to understand why our government can't see the need to bail us out of our dependence on foreign oil. I am appalled at all the articulating stories of green technology losing hope of being furthered because of lower gas prices. How long does anyone really think this decline will last? OPEC holds the key and we are at their mercy. They just cut 1.5 million barrels in production a day and vow to cut more if prices don't rise again. Instead of spending billions upon billions on bailouts, why don't we instead invest in renewable energy. We have GUARANTEED returns if we do this. I just read a fascinating book by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW . I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in seeing our country become energy independent. He has a web site he can explain it better than I .. www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com
‘A Green New Deal’
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The world, simply put, needs a new economic driver, a new hot growth industry. And with financial markets down one-third or more for the year, even once stalwart capitalists are now willing to entertain the idea that perhaps the government must play a greater role in sparking growth and job creation. Proponents of the 21st century's New Deal argue that massive public investments and fiscal incentives can lay the groundwork for the private sector to develop whole new industries and create millions of jobs in the near term, and, oh, by the way, save the planet in the medium term. "You are not just putting money into hot paper or into a financial-services sector that destroys itself," says Oliver Schäfer, policy director of the European Renewable Energy Council. "You are investing in clean technology, which is real business."
Indeed, in 2008 the promise of jobs is a stronger incentive to go green than the threat of ice caps melting and coastal cities drowning in 2018 or 2048. In the euro zone, for instance, unemployment is expected to rise from 11.3 million to 14.5 million by the end of next year, pushing the rate up from 7.5 to 9 percent. In the U.S. the rate is 6.1 percent, but is expected to push toward 8 percent by the end of 2009, the highest in 25 years. Bill Gates, a man who knows a thing or two about job creation, predicts unemployment could reach as high as 9 percent. Already in the first nine months of this year some 760,000 people lost their jobs, and the total ranks of the unemployed has swollen from 7.3 million to 9.5 million.
Such are the hopes for green industries that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso talks of "a great opportunity for new growth" and vows that "we will achieve the low-carbon society that is compatible with growth ahead of the rest of the world." Tokyo's ministry for trade, economy and industry says it wants to build a new industrial infrastructure by banking on more efficient use of energy and innovative technologies.
The U.S. Congress endorsed a green response to the global crisis when it demanded provisions for developing renewable energy supplies as a condition for approving the massive financial rescue package in October. And the political platforms of both the major presidential candidates note the promise of green initiatives. Republican John McCain may have made a stump-speech mantra of the phrase "drill, baby, drill" [for oil], but his official position is that "the U.S. must become a leader in a new international green economy."
Democrat Barack Obama is considerably more ambitious. Among other programs, he says he'll "strategically invest $150 billion over 10 years" in a "clean energy economy" that will "help the private sector create 5 million new green jobs, good jobs that cannot be outsourced." In a good year the U.S. economy adds 2 million jobs, so Obama is talking about goals so ambitious that they amount to a green New Deal, even if he doesn't use the phrase himself.
Obama is also talking about accelerating the commercialization of plug-in hybrid cars, promoting renewable energy projects, encouraging energy efficiency, investing in low-emission coal plants and advancing the next generation of biofuels. Obama wants to create a program to train American war veterans for work in green industries and modernize factories to make green products. Heather Zichal, Obama's policy director for energy, environment and agriculture, says the candidate believes that given the economic climate these are investments the United States must make, and that government has to play a role. His "point is that you can't just hope that the free market is going to fix these problems," she says.
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