A green gold rush under Obama?
The United States will experience a ''green gold rush'' if Barack Obama is elected president, and investors and Fortune 500 companies already are lining up to support Obama's push to end fuel imports by 2012 through investments in alternative energy.
That's according to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., senior attorney to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Writing for cnn.com, Kennedy says of Obama's energy policy:
It will sharpen our competitiveness by reducing our energy costs, dramatically reduce our national debt, stimulate our economy far more effectively than tax cuts by putting conservation savings in the hands of every American, and be the engine for creating millions of green-collar jobs that cannot be outsourced....We sit atop the second-largest geothermal resources in the world. The American Midwest is the Saudi Arabia of wind. Solar installations across just 19 percent of the most barren desert land in the Southwest could supply nearly all of our nation's electricity needs even if every American owned an electric car....
For a tiny fraction of the projected cost of the Iraq war, we could completely wean the country from carbon. Homes and businesses will become power plants as people cash in by installing solar panels and wind turbines on their buildings, and selling the stored energy in their plug-in hybrids back to the grid at peak hours. By kicking its carbon addiction, America will increase its national wealth. Everyone will profit from the green gold rush.
We will create a decentralized and highly distributable grid that is far more resilient and safe for our country; a terrorist might knock out a power plant, but never a million homes. And for the first time in half a century, we will live free from Middle Eastern wars and entanglements with petty tyrants who despise democracy and are hated by their own people.
Click here for the full article. His comments came before his ailing uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, took the stage last night to support Obama.
But even before that, the United States was seeing good news on the energy freedom front. The New York Times reported that soaring domestic production of natural gas, spurred on by high prices and innovations in extracting gas from shale, have pushed down prices per thousand cubic feet from $13 last month to $7.84 on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest price since Feb. 1. (It closed yesterday at $7.94). Click here for that report on the fastest rise in domestic natural gas production in a half-century.
What do you think? Do you agree with Kennedy's upbeat assessment of Obama's energy policy, or is he off-base? Let us know in our comments section below.
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I think Mr Kennedy is right except fot the wind turbines and solar panels on our homes and buildings. I think a more decent approach to wind is community wind that has been sucesssful in the farm areas hit by the slupping economy and loss of jobs. Solar power and geothermal are great options in the Southwest but think of what a State like New Mexico could become with all that power. We need a more balanced approach with the better use of existing mechanical and electrical systems. We have many buildings that will need retrofits in the comming years and we must concentrate on energy effeciency upgrades and LEED awareness.
I think that this was a wonderful summation of how lots of relatively small-scale contributions can take place if only the government will take the step of supporting the investment in them. Boston's recent review of their zoning regulations concerning wind turbines in the city is a case in point. What wonderful things we could achieve if we had some national leadership instead of having to rely on a hodge-podge of municipalities to make policy.
If every home had a few solar panels and a small wind turbine; if every community had a larger, shared turbine; if we built geothermal power plants instead of coal-fired ones; if we harnessed the tides; if we invested in developing a hydrogen production and distribution network... All of these small things can add up to energy independance and a whole economic sector that the Saudis and the Chnese can't take away. Heck, they'll probably want to buy the know-how from us!
How difficult would it be to produce energy from methane gas? I spoke to a plumber and he said that it is a viable form of energy. But to harness the energy you would have to look at buildings with many people in them; i.e. schools, prisons, office buildings. We have many of those. Just think how every tall building in Boston would be producing its own energy. It's a thought - maybe for the future - but it would not be unsightly like wind farms.
i don`t understand, but TY
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