Green Power
The New Energy Economy: Global warming issues have been pushed to the back burner by many doubting political and corporate leaders in view of the government bailouts, unemployment surge, and rise in home foreclosures. Venture capitalists are getting cautious about investments. Amid this despair some voices are saying it is the right time to launch a global uprising.
The time for a New Green Era has come paralleling the New Deal Era of post depression president Franklin Roosevelt. Not only will it put off disasters and shortages in two or three decades from now, but it will reshape the economy of the globe. In the U.S., President Elect Barack Obama is quoted as saying, “We can move toward energy independence and create 5 million new jobs across America.” The financial and housing sectors, once creating U.S. job growth are now driving unemployment. The U.S and the world need a new economic driver and growth industry.
Roosevelt’s New Deal recharged the economy during the great Depression of the 30’s and into the 40’s with the WPA (works project administration). Investments have driven the economy since but with its failure a new push or spark is needed from the government. Supporters of the New Deal propose that massive public investment and fiscal incentives can lay the ground work for the private sector to develop whole new industries and create new jobs and save the planet in the long haul. Oliver Schäfer, policy director of the European Renewable Energy Council states, “You are investing in clean technology, which is real business.” The strongest incentive of this is new jobs and the beauty of it is the resulting attentiveness to good stewardship of the planet. Barack Obama wants to create a program that trains American veterans for work in green industries and modernize factories to make green products. Given the economic conditions currently afflicting us, these are investments that governments must make.
A few European countries have taken a strong lead with substantial initiatives. The U.N. reports that Germany supports a $240 billion dollar renewable energy industry which employs 250,000 people and by the year 2020 will provide more jobs in this sector than in their current main employment industry of automotives.
Britain’s goal is to increase its wind turbine industry tremendously by the year 2020. It is imperative for the government to push ahead and provide incentives, regulations, and ‘a whole lot of money’ up front in order for this long term job producer and global conservation movement to take hold. When capital and credit are tight, and oil prices drop private investors are less likely to put billions in to R&D for a distant clean-energy future. Governments need to jumpstart their economy with regulations and public investments to create millions of new jobs.
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b.i.n. = Baja Infortheque Network.