Stimulating the Growth of CleanTech

Regular readers may know the name Annemarie Osbourne, 2GreenEnergy’s “associate” in the public relations field.

Annemarie just wrote to me from her home in Southern Germany with a concept she supports for stimulating the growth of cleantech. 

Wow, that’s extensive, but do you really want all this in the public sector?  Most people understand that government is needed to stimulate things that are good for society, but no one wants a bigger government than we need, as its subject to bloat and corruption.

I favor passing one piece of legislation, or at most a few, that would have the effect of making all this happen in the private sector.  That’s the reason I do what I can to promote the Carbon Fee and Dividend, which is the brainchild of the Citizens Climate Lobby.  Imagine a revenue neutral law that works as follows:

• Taxes the carbon in fossil fuels at its source, causing the costs of things like gasoline and coal-powered electricity to rise.

• Distributes these fees back to the people, off-setting these higher costs, and producing an incentive to find alternatives, say EVs and renewable energy.

• Stimulates suppliers to develop low-carbon products (e.g., better EVs, more efficient solar panels, etc.) to give consumers what they’re demanding.

Note the effect on jobs and the economy as a whole.  Like all concepts like the “Green New Deal,” new industries mean new high-paying jobs in greater number. There are already 6.5 million jobs in the solar industry alone, 374,000 in the U.S., seven times the number of American coal miners.