Syria and the
Price of Oil; Solar in the Move in the U.S.; Global Warming Splits the GOP
GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up
and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
Oil, Oil, Oil
The Syrian conflict is pushing up the price of oil, the recovering American economy is
pushing up the price of oil, the price of oil will always be high and trending upwards. Producing oil at
home is the purported escape from high global prices. But, that is not how
oil prices work, you cannot escape the global price of oil.
A grand deal on the XL Keystone pipeline between Canada and Obama is
underway.
The new Canadian
approach is to propose a reduction in the pollution of the oil and gas industry
overall to justify the dirty XL Keystone Pipeline.
While many Americans have moved on from the
BP-Transocean-Haliburton Gulf oil spill the clean-up continues.
The cleanup effort nears conclusion not as all the oil is
removed from the Gulf, but only that which is “feasible.” Think about that the
next time you see a smiling BP representative on TV talking about how much they
care for the region. Care too late that is.
There are many reasons for this but the
biggest influence is the federal tax credit. Since all sources of energy are
subsidized by the government solar can not continue without a level playing
field. It would be more simple to stop giving tax breaks to dirty energy
companies, start a small carbon tax that grows with time, and eventually tax
breaks for renewable energy would likely not be needed.
The other reason why
the sector is growing so quickly is the rapid technological innovation for solar. This development
will continue and in the next 10 years we will hopefully have flexible,
high efficiency solar cells that are cheap and can be installed anywhere.
And the rest
- Crowd-funding to finance community renewable energy projects, is the business model of Solar Mosaic. Innovations like this are pushing solar forward.
- Solar is growing and in places where it is successful the utilities are losing profit and are starting to fight back. To paraphrase Gandhi – First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Not all Republicans are climate change deniers. There is a split amongst Republicans on this issue and I think that as Republicans lose more national elections they will be pressured to come around on this issue.
