Two Good Questions on Clean Energy and Sustainability

Last evening, I had an interesting conversation with a reader that I’d thought I’d share.  She asked two good questions:

1) Won’t our efforts to migrate away from fossil fuels hurt our economy?  I explained that this is complex.  Certainly paying more for energy is a drag on the economy, as it adds costs to businesses, and leaves consumers with less disposable income.  But there are other important considerations:

• Job creation: the people who study this subject tell me that the entire cleantech movement, principally energy efficiency and renewables, will significantly stimulate the economy.

• Global  competitiveness: If the U.S. sits on the sidelines and lets the rest of the world dominate this industry, it will do so at the expense of losing its leadership (and perhaps its relevance) in the global economy.  I’m quite convinced that the business/financial side of the 21st Century will be defined by cleantech, as our culture gradually wakes up to the real issues we face here and starts to ascribe a cost to our de facto fossil-based energy policy.

• Falling costs: The levelized cost of wind energy is already quite competitive with coal.  Of course, wind is a variable resource, and this creates challenges to grid operators if it is to be integrated in huge volumes.  But it’s important to note that the costs of renewable energy generally will fall steadily over time.

• Unfair cost accounting.  As suggested above, the only reason fossil fuels are cheap is that we’re artificially making them so, by allowing the companies involved to push the social costs (principally lung disease and environmental damage) on to us consumers.

2) She then went on to ask: Why should the U.S. take actions when China isn’t?  I explained that this too is complicated:

• It’s not at all true that China is doing nothing; in fact, they’re by far the world’s leading investor in renewable energy (though they’re also the world’s biggest polluter).

• Behaving poorly just because others may be doing the same is not really morally defensible.

• Third and most important, all seven billion (soon to become 10 billion) on this planet are jeopardized by the pollution of our water, land, and skies.  Our civilization either solves this problem or risks an incalculable level of suffering by mid-century — and certainly by the end of the century.  Regardless of where we live, we all need to be hard at work, driving up the efficiencies and driving down the costs of cleantech solutions.

Of course, that’s easy to say.  Except to wage war, is there a precedent for people coming together across the boundaries of nationality and race?  Not at any meaningful scale.  If this happens, it will be a landmark event in the history of humankind.