This is the kind of thing I have been advocating: start rebuilding American manufacturing base by making alternative energy technology and combining it with more incentives for people to use alternative energy. Part of the equation is as a JOBS ISSUE. From Daily Kos [1]:
[Daily Kos quoting Philadelphia Inquirer] In his first term, Rendell opened a new chapter in the state's long history of energy innovation. Pennsylvania coal powered the country in the 18th and 19th centuries. America struck oil in 1859 in Titusville.
Now, Pennsylvania is breaking ground on alternative energy: wind, solar, biomass, waste coal. Rendell's first term focused on electrical-power generation; the second term promises to revolutionize transportation fuels...
Rendell's passion blossomed under the tutelage of environmental secretary Kathleen McGinty, who worked for Gore in the Senate and the White House and on private-sector energy projects.
She knows that investments in renewable energy can reap good-paying jobs, as well as benefit the environment and reduce dependence on imported fuels.
Rendell set out to prove that by wooing companies such as Spanish wind giant Gamesa Corp., which was seeking a U.S. headquarters. Gamesa decided in 2004 to locate in Bucks County and build two Pennsylvania manufacturing plants, as well. The $84 million investment is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.
Now comments from Jerome a Paris on Daily Kos:
We all know, by now, that protecting the environment is worth it, but we see it, most of the time, as a burden that needs to be carried. Well, that narrative needs to be changed: alternative energies create jobs - in fact, they create lots more jobs than other energy sources, which rely on heavy capital investment and extraction of resources from the ground, neither of which require many jobs.
While the manufacturing jobs are up for grabs, the jobs linked with operations and maintenance of renewable energy generators (like wind turbines and solar panels) CANNOT be outsourced, and they are located in the community which hosts the generation capacity.
And manufacturing - what Pennsylvania has managed to attract - is high tech manufacturing (new materials, complex machinery, aerospace-style technology, etc...) which provides lots of well-qualified - and I would imagine, well paid, jobs, both of the white collar and the blue collar varieties...
There's no secret: good regulation is required. Smart regulation that allows for market mechanisms to play - within a framework and towards goals defined by public authorities - and for investors to take their decisions on rational, predictable return criteria.
But regulation comes from the government (or, here, State authorities), and thus require public authorities willing to state priorities and set the rules to achieve them. Government action is needed, and it is a force for good.
Let's push alternative energy for all sorts of reasons. We can clean up our air, create American jobs, help farmers (who are increasingly including wind power generation in their mix of "crops") etc. It isn't the cure all for all our ills, but it sure can help with several problems at once. We subsidize oil companies even as they increase gas prices and make record profits. Why not cut those subsidies a little and use it to boost alternative energy in the US, including boosting our manufacturing sector?
I am sure Steam Geek has his take on this...which he is welcome to add despite his claims of censorship. But more and more people are realizing that alternative energy is a GOOD alternative to oil and a change is slowly coming.
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