Two reasons for optimism on Clean Energy....

Today's post: Wednesday, 10-27-2010

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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.

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.

Today’s post: Two reasons for optimism on Clean Energy

1. If you’ve not yet voted and can vote in California, be SURE to vote against Proposition 23 that would kill off new clean energy jobs and even some existing ones and increase air pollution in the state.

The very good news is that the polls have the NO side ahead by a healthy margin as of the most recent poll.

That’s a relief. But games and wars and political contests can be lost by the side that’s ahead at the last minute if the people who are ahead stop making an effort before they are over.

So while the news is good, be SURE to vote against prop 23 if you can but have not yet done so.

Also, the two state wide candidates for Governor and for the US Senate who would like to do as prop 23 suggests and suspend AB 32, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, are also losing in the polls.

As a progressive Republican, I support more jobs in California and more participation by Californians in the major growth business sector of the next 30 or 40 years, clean energy.

The evidence for clean energy doing these things is clear enough that, despite the fact that Whitman and Fiorina are Republicans, they are not competent for the positions they are seeking due to their ignorance. That makes the issues on which I agree with them irrelevant.

Conversely, though neither is perfect, both Jerry Brown and Barbara
Boxer DO know and ALREADY have a track-record of taking action personally to support clean energy.

So, similarly, please be sure to vote for Brown and Boxer if you can vote in California and have not yet done so.

Still, the news that in the 3 races in California that can most impact clean energy, the good guys are clearly ahead is welcome news indeed.

2. The other news on clean energy is quite different. But it has HUGE implications.

To build the clean energy economy large enough and to get it done fast enough, we need most of the people helping get it done.

So far, that has NOT happened.

People who believe the science that global warming will cause huge and expensive problems beginning right now if it isn’t turned way down soon support clean energy and building it up fast enough and on a large enough scale.

Similarly, the people who see the reports saying fossil fuel availability will fall behind energy demand enough to cause severe price run ups within 15 or 20 years or even sooner, as I do, support clean energy and building it up fast enough and on a large enough scale.

Why the people who understand that science and the understanding it provides enables them to drive cars that work at least most of the time and use electronic communications that work even more reliably fail to believe in science when it reveals global warming and the likely problems it causes are real is not something I completely understand.

But between their wishing it wasn’t so and the disinformation they see from short sighted and badly managed companies that fear they will lose money unless they fight efforts to use less fossil fuels, a very large number of people DO disbelieve the science behind global warming.

To be fair one writer points out that the media have announced many problems that looked to be quite serious that never were a few years later. He thinks that global warming is real but will turn out to be no big deal as those previous problems did.

He has a serious point. Unfortunately, this time it looks like from the science that he is horribly mistaken.

So, what’s the good news about all this?!

It’s been recently proven that even people who disbelieve in global warming and running short on fossil fuels will support taking action on clean energy! Even better, they will actually take action on making clean energy happen!

That is extremely good news and is critically important to making clean energy happen soon enough and on a large enough scale.

What happened?

A woman realized that the climate warming deniers all still liked saving money, they all liked creating more local jobs, and they all were patriotic enough and knowledgeable enough about the risks of our extreme dependence on imported oil they ARE willing to take action on clean energy when it saves them money, creates more local jobs, and increases our freedom from dependence on imported oil.

She put together a program showing ways people could act on clean energy that would do these things and she added a religious faith based appeal for clean environment as a way of preserving God’s creation. That too is sound. Cleaner sources of energy and more pollution reduction do help keep their local environment in its original condition instead of having it get worse.

This was done in Kansas where there is significant wind power potential. Her program emphasized ways to save money, make money, and create local jobs by tapping wind power and by finding many other ways to save energy and become more energy efficient – and save money personally.

People were quite fond of these benefits and actually took action. Kansas landed a very large wind power equipment manufacturer and began to do more to harvest wind generated electricity there. And, there are many places in Kansas that are saving money still due to the increases in energy efficiency in those places.

In short, even people who don’t believe scientists and oil supply experts -- or don’t want to -- are happy to support clean energy if they see what it does for them in other ways that do not relate to those concerns.

The clean energy supporting people need to find more ways to build on these themes to make enough happen soon enough and to get the wide based political support needed to do so.

The very good news is that there is such a winning strategy and it has been proven to work!