Election Fall-Out for Clean Technology

Author:
Jim Gleeson, AIA

Date Posted:
11/10/10 01:16 PM

Rona and Sustainable Business, I have been in the "Sustainable Design" Business for many years. I have seen the industry go from an almost unknown movement of architects, engineers and others trying to start the USGBC, to steady growth, as people became aware of the benefits of 'green' strategies to the triple bottom line. Somewhere in the early 2000's something started to take over the movement. It started to grow exponentially. This was very rewarding at first to those of us that had worked hard from early on to promote it and it's benefits. But something had changed. It had become POLITICAL. It had been taken over by people with a different agenda, one not so much about the environment. I am very much interested in, and supportive of environmental issues. The waste that our building and manufacturing, even living processes produce is appalling. But how did we get from there to government control, carbon taxation and wealth redistribution and UN Frameworks on Global Government? When you say things like "Lie, Smear, Obstruct, Win. That's the new motto for American politics." referring to Republicans, you only add to the polarization. It is not just black and white. The US is a prime example of how free enterprise cleans up is own messes as it and technology develop. For example, automobiles give off a small fraction of the GHG they did only a few years ago. MPG has tripled since the seventies. When government takes too much control it only slows things down and produces the kind of national debt we are currently experiencing. For a website named "Sustainable Business" the anti-business rhetoric is extremely counter productive.

Author:
Rona Fried

Date Posted:
11/10/10 08:09 PM

Jim, this isn't anti-business rhetoric. The Lie, Smear, Obstruct, Win line refers to things like "cap and tax", which effectively ended our ability to install a cap-and-trade program, "death panels", which turned the American public away from health care reform, etc. Unfortunately, the EIA has produced reports over the past years saying that there must be a price on carbon, that government policy is crucial in leveling the playing field for renewable energy. And until this year, when Obama finally put new fuel economy standards in force, the US hadn't increased those standards since the 1970s or 1980s. Many of the biggest corporations such as GE, Google etc. are very much in favor of proactive gov't policy.

Author:
Jim Gleeson, AIA

Date Posted:
10/09/11 02:46 AM

Rona, I'm not saying we don't need a plan to get to renewable energy and away from reliance on foreign oil. I'm saying we have to have a long range plan designed by all the major players that is consistent with how our economy works. If we have to switch to a government induced forced- march which ignores economics, to get there, we will never get there. If the government in the 1890's had put huge taxes on the horse and buggy industry to promote the automobile they would have put thousands of people out of work and crippled and industry well before the automobile was ready for mass consumption. I am very much a proponent for Green Energy, but government can't force green energy to be feasible especially when we are already 14 Trillion in debt. You use "Lie Smear Obstruct, win" to describe calling "Cap and Trade", "Cap and Tax". Those of us in the "Green Industry" must be very careful we are not promoting something based on unresearched assumptions. You are assuming that the "science" on which Cap and Trade is based is actually true and verifiable. I assumed it was also, until I did my own research. Have you actually read the UN IPCC reports and the reports by Richard Lindzen of MIT and many others? The real unfortunate thing to me is that now the original, authentic Green movement is caught between both world views- we have been hijacked by the left and now the right assumes we (green architects, journalists etc.)are all part of the push for government control. Please describe for us how the government can actually "level the playing field" and make solar or wind energy affordable and practical on an national scale. When you give them millions of taxpayer dollars that doesn't make them successful, it produces things like Solyndra. It's a nice idea if it were actually doable. Too many people and organizations are abdicating their responsibility to understand fully what they are promoting and instead are just accepting the talking points of those pushing an agenda and passing it on as unquestionable. www.thegwpf.org