By Robert S. Siegel
Today is Earth Day yet I have no intention of promoting belief or dis-belief in global warming; there will be more than enough discussion on that today and I have nothing new to add to that conversation.
I want to focus instead on alternative energy and I want to do it completely apart from any discussion on warming. The point I hope to make here is that those that do not accept global warming still have excellent reasons to support development of alternative energy. Alternative energy and global warming are not necessarily related, nor is government decree the best means of bringing energy alternatives to market.
Alternatives aren’t just about global warming
There are very valid reasons for non- believers to enthusiastically embrace alternative energy, specifically national and international security, and free markets.
1. National security
OPEC will earn upwards of $850 billion dollars in 2009. To be sure, not all OPEC nations are hostile to the U.S. nor do they all support terrorists. But the list of those terrorist supporting nations includes many of OPEC’s richest. Iran, the nation believed to be close to developing nuclear weapons earned $70 billion at the close of the Iranian calendar year. Mexico, which produces more than 13% of the oil imported is unstable due to continued drug related violence and considered a potentially failing state, along with Pakistan.
Supporters of alternative energy insist we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil as a matter of national security. I don’t believe that reducing our dependence will be enough. We can’t just reduce the numbers of billions we send terrorist supporters, we need to break the market (noted with sympathy to Canada, Mexico, and other peaceful oil producers). We need the kind of disruptive innovation that will move the world beyond oil. Just as we need to stop supplying Mexico’s drug cartels with American cash to help the Mexicans defeat the gangs, we need to stop supplying Islamic terrorists with cash to help moderate Islam along with Western ideas defeat terrorism.
2. Economics
Alternative energy offers the greatest economic boost the world has ever known. We have come a long way toward recognizing this opportunity. So far in fact the New York Times reported yesterday that, “The richer everyone gets, the greener the planet will be in the long run.” Not really a stunning statement to free marketers but nonetheless stunning in this era.
Alternative energy means new electrical generation and transmission facilities, new automobile power systems and methods to distribute that power. We are sitting on what could potentially be the greatest age of innovation ever.
Government is not the best way to bring about Alternative Energy adoption.
We could allow our government to take the lead in developing new energy. That means giving our kids one more government program they are going to have to clean up after us (see Economic Stimulus, Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Drug Program, United States Postal Service, Ma Bell, Cable television franchises, and Army Corps of Engineers Lake Lanier. Making that list was too much fun. I have to stop now).
Or, we could turn toward free markets. President Obama could assign his energy czars and climate czars and whatever other czars he has to work to ferret out and fight federal regulations that block energy development (see Kennedy, not in my backyard). We could and probably should involve the Feds in setting up the standards and funding (yes, government funding! This is the only part) the core electrical grid better known as the Smart Grid. The program would be similar to the federal highway program of the 1950s because the Grid would act like the highways in being a route for commerce, this time in electrons.
Can we do this without government subsidies? I am often told that alternative energy adoption is a price issue. When the cost is lower people will adopt alternatives but not until the price is lower. And we need government subsidies to get the price lower.
I don’t buy that (pun intended).
Alternative Energy is about image. If we make alternative energy cool it will sell. The marketers of Coke and Nike, Ipod, and Xbox could sell it. Get Brad and Angelina to put it on their house and Madonna to name one of her kids after it and get it a spot on entertainment tonight and have Miley and her friends drive to a party. It’ll sell.
Final note: For those that remain against or neutral on alternative energy I recommend Newt Gingrich’s excellent book, A Contract with the Earth. Yes, Republicans care too.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I know you said you don’t want to get bogged down in the debate over whether we’re destroying the world, and I believe that national security is reason enough to end dependence on foreign oil, but I never understood this: Fill a glass with ice water. Measure the level of the water. Then let the ice melt. The level of the water is the same. I never understood why, even if the polar ice caps completely melt (which of course will never happen), the world will flood. Have you ever heard a rational scientific explanation for this?
Great question. The Arctic is water only but Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, and glaciers throughout the world are on land. If this ice melts, the oceans will rise though not to the extreme’s of Al Gore’s movie – even he has backed down from that.
I think it is important to note that climate change is cyclical, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have oil because jungles once existed there. A year or two ago demonstrators attempting to draw attention to global warming had their picture taken on dry land where a glacier had existed the year before. In getting to the spot they passed a cave that had been opened by the melting ice. That cave contained mining tools indicating that the cave had been free of ice at some point in human history. Climate change is a constant.
I have walked the path of a receeding glacier in Alaska and been shown a lot of receeding ice by pilots as we flew over. The ice really is melting in many places.
Another important point is that if oceans do rise people will need to relocate or build barriers to keep the water out. Either way, relocating or building barriers will take incredible financial resources. We need a vibrant economy to generate the wealth that will be needed; vibrancy offered by a free market.
Super article – i will definitely come back again:D
Terrific information!! hope to visit once more.
2 quick points. First, the old “Cap and Trade” tax that is being bandied about isn’t for government subsidies or improving the infrastructure of the energy grid. From what I’ve read well over 85% of that tax will be used for, uh, social programs rather than pumped back into the energy sector where it belongs.
Second, in the grand tradition of NIMBY, don’t forget about Feinstein and her solar panels.