It’s on! The Green Energy Race has started….

Today's post: Wednesday, 9-30-2009

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Years ago, one of the smartest and best informed people in the United States, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, said that the United States needed to take a Manhattan Project urgency to dramatic increases in energy efficiency & sources of renewable energy—or the race to the moon urgency.

My take has been that it’s more like the effort the United States needed to win World War II. And, interestingly enough, it’s Germany that has taken this approach to dramatic increases in energy efficiency & sources of renewable energy. They’ve done very well.

But, I knew he was right that we’ve needed something dramatic to get the public and our leaders excited and committed.

It’s on! The Green energy Race has started!

Tom Friedman saw this one too! In fact, he just wrote about it.

After Sputnik, the US & the then USSR, Russia and its then included countries, had a serious space race. Today, the equivalent of Sputnik has happened in green energy.

The problems caused by overuse of fossil fuel in China have been serious enough, they’ve decided, for self-preservation motives, to make a massive and effective commitment to green energy.

So, I think Tom Friedman is correct.

It’s on! The Green energy Race has started!

The Green Energy Race now has all the world entered in a way that the Space race did not. But the main two competitors in the Green Energy Race now are the United States and China.

As venture capitalist John Doerr pointed out months ago, the United States is not doing well in this race.

So, let’s consider Tom Friedman’s recent column today’s equivalent of Sputnik.:

email the link to everyone you know after you read it.

It’s at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/opinion/27friedman.html?_r=1&em .