Why is Alabama spending more money, per person, to import coal than any other state in the country - with $1.8 billion going out of state, and one-third of that to Columbia in 2008? Why did Texas import more coal than any other state, spending $1.9 billion in 2008 - when they have the ability up to generate up 17 times the needed power from local renewable resources?
Why is New York state importing coal from as far away as Venezuela? Georgia - the most heavily dependent on imported coal - spent $2.6 billion importing it - which is 540 times what the state spent on energy effeciency programs, and while sending massive amounts of bio-mass to Europe for energy production there?
Does this make sense? Of course not. Uh, it could have something to do with campaign contributions by uh, the coal industry. Do you think? Take the fascinating and informative quiz from the Union of Concerned Scientists to find out who’s got the power, and why it’s not being used.
Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Arnold Schwartenegger (R-CA) lead a discussion on America’s crumbling infrastructure and how it should - or must- fit in any budgetary or policy discussion going forward.
America’s infrastructure is in grave disrepair. Analysts have determined that one-third of the nation’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and the Federal Highway Administration recently estimated that one out of every four bridges is either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
It seems like every day, we hear more on the news that tells me, at least, Obama gets it when it comes to the critical imperative to green the country and our economy. He’s obviously had a staffer read Thomas L. Friedmans’ book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded”, and that staffer must have given him an excellent briefing in return.
At last we have a new president—and one who obviously “gets it” about the need for America to change over to a Clean Energy system and renew our national ideals and sense of purpose in the process. With that in mind, I am now going to begin to revise and update Hot, Flat, and Crowded for a new edition and to write the new chapter, Chapter 18. Thanks to all for your contributions; I’ll take up a number of them in the new chapter.
A final question: What is President Obama leaving out? What should he do on the clean energy front that he isn’t already doing?
The takeaway from that book, and I really do suggest that everybody put down what they’re reading now, and plow through “Hot, Flat and Crowded”, is that going green is the very best solution to the economic crisis our country is facing. Friedman makes the case, right down to specifics, of how going green - initiallywith our antiquated electricity grid - can produce hundreds of thousands of new, sustainable jobsnow and into the future. It would also be the foundation by which American industry and workers can take back supremacy we’ve squandered over the last three decades and more.
Importantly, this ‘greening’ of America would produce jobs that cannot be outsourced to foreign countries - that will stay right here at home - while providing Americans with a vastly improved standard of living, clean energy and enhanced national security, since we would no longer be hostage to the fossil fuel petro-dictators.
Please watch the video below, but also go to the Repower America webpage and sign the petition going to Washington D.C.
Obama has sounded the clarion call, but already the Republicans are starting to go back to their old sorry ways - as naysayers. The Obama campaign was about participation in the process by the electorate - that means you.
Dear Friend,
Today, I will be testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about repowering America and the need for us to resume global leadership on the climate crisis. As you know, it’s a critical time in our country and we all have a role to play.
In Congress, our leaders are debating an economic recovery package. It includes unprecedented support for putting Americans back to work building a clean energy economy.
But entrenched interests in Washington will be working hard to weaken the legislation — opposing funding for clean energy programs that support things like wind, solar, energy efficiency and a new national electric grid.
Comments to Gore’s proposals:
Dr. James Hansen — Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
“This is just what the doctor ordered — to cure our carbon addiction and stimulate the economy. It would be the turning point that is needed to lead the world to a stable climate.”
Bob Barr — Libertarian presidential candidate
“America responds well to challenges, if it is laid out, if it’s in terms that people can understand and relate to, if it makes sense – and what he’s laid out makes sense.”
As members of Congress work out the details of a bill that can pass both the House and the Senate, it’s important that you let each of your elected representatives know that you want the recovery to be about repowering America.
You and I know that continuing with the status quo will not revitalize the U.S. economy. Please make sure your elected officials know, too.
Watch the video and send a quick note to Congress:
In this energizing talk, Amory Lovins lays out his simple plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy.
Of course, when you think about the fact that this talk was given in 2005 and that none of this information is exactly news to anybody who has been paying attention, you have to wonder who slipped the Ambien into the Detroit water supply.
I realize they need a ‘bailout’ since I don’t want to see tens of thousands of workers in the unemployment line either, but remember this - we’ve been there before with Chrysler. Did they change their ways? No.
Nobody in this country has had the courage to hold their feet to the fire and insist on change. Thus you see the results of lassez-faire capitalism on the front pages daily. If you don’t think that government can do this, you have no further to look than Japan - those people who whipped Detroit at their own game.
The Japanese government set price floors, below which the price of energy ( always limited and expensive in Japan ) would not go. Therefore industry had to become energy effecient to survive and thrive. This worked so darn well that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is selling their giant dynamos - which are far more energy effecient than ours - to us here in the U.S.
Industry in Japan - as in Europe - also knew that their substantial investment in innovation would not be wasted when, as will happen, wild fluctuations in the price of energy happen. For verification, look no further than current headlines here in the U.S. when the price of gasoline went below $3.00 a gallon. Happy days were certainly here again. Right?
Price floors/price signals prevent that type of amnesia.
There most certainly is a role for government policy making in directing the innovation that will - or will not - characterize our profitability through the rest of this century. But with Americans inherent distrust of all things attached to the word ‘government’, they’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I contend that the automotive industry - left totheir own devices - has done an absolutely abysmal job at developing innovative solutions to a looming energy crisis, but did a great job at pandering to the limited sight lines of the woefully single minded American energy consumer/driver. If we left innovation to Detroits’ timetable cars would still have buggy springs, no seat belts, windshield wipersor airbags. In fact, they fought each one of those specific innovations.
Indeed, Detroit provides the best argument yet in favor of government intervention in an industry.
So the question remains: under what conditions do we - the taxpayers - bail them out?
In so far as Lovins’ assertions: I don’t believe biofuels are the end answer ( and he’s not talking about ethanol but rather switchgrass and others) rather plug-in hybrids if and when we ever get a smart energy grid instead of the archaic 19th century grid we have now - cobbled together across the country.
Please click on one of the gray bars above. These videos present a bit differently than those from Youtube.
I can just see the eyeballs beginning to roll when I mention price signals/floors on energy, imposed by goverment.
You should read the following position held by Duke Energy, then.
( from their website)
Duke Energy’s Position
Most scientists believe that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are influencing the earth’s climate. Although there’s much to learn about the cause and effect of climate change, consensus is building that steps should be taken now to reduce these emissions. Duke Energy shares that view.
We have a responsibility to our customers, our investors and our communities to play a lead role in shaping a national policy that addresses this challenge responsibly and fairly. We must be good stewards of the environment. We must do our part to meet the nation’s growing energy needs and to keep our energy prices affordable. We need predictability to make sound plans for electric generation and natural gas infrastructure.
We are concerned about patchwork policies focused on a single industrial sector or particular region of the country. We are concerned about approaches that could have grave and unintended impacts on the U.S. economy or that could result in rapid or extreme rate increases for electricity and natural gas customers.
We favor a U.S. policy on climate change that:
Is economy-wide in its reach, rather than targeting a single industry for emissions reductions
Is national in scope, yet considers varying impacts across regions and economic sectors
Is market-based, with price signals leading to technological innovation and investment, energy efficiency and conservation
Begins to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, and does so gradually over time
Is simple to administer and provides price certainty.
Such a policy could be achievedthrough a “cap and trade” approach. The important thing is that we get to work now. Duke Energy believes that voluntary programs are not enough. Congress needs to establish a national, economy-wide greenhouse gas mandatory program as soon as possible. A sustainable path to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions should become part of a worldwide response to this global issue.
Amory Lovins is cofounder of the Rocky Mountain Institute and the instigator of ingenious ideas to transform the energy and automobile industries.
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 12:25 
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