Forbes Bagatelle-Black: Renewable Energy Renaissance Man

I had the good fortune to connect to an old friend just now, Forbes Bagatelle-Black, one of these “Renaissance men” who’s as good with the language (he’s a professional author) as he is with the sciences (he hold a master’s degree in engineering).

I called him because of his passion for renewable energy. His blog called “Cycloculture” is about cycling, and he’s quite adamant that everyone should substitute a bicycle for a car wherever they possibly can.

The gating issue, Forbes tells me, is public relations. “We’re in the PR phase of the migration to renewable energy. People don’t get it. They drive a Highlander hybrid that gets 23 miles per gallon, and they think they’re being green. We’ll never get where we need to be with that type of thinking.”

Forbes sees two major snags, both largely built around our market economy. “First you have the supply and demand issues. We have abundant dirty energy that appears to be inexpensive. It’s actually horribly expensive in terms of long-term environmental damage, but those costs are hidden, and no one’s paying them. We’re billing them to our children and our grandchildren. If we were confronting the true costs of what we’re doing right now, gasoline and coal-based electricity would be astronomically expensive.”

“And there’s another market-based issue?” I asked.

“Right. The other issue is politics. We live in a market-driven democracy, by which I mean we can vote for whoever makes us feel good. You can run for office on the platform that “You can’t drive your Hummer” but you’ll never get elected.”

“Do you see any hope?” I wanted to know.

“Well, I’m delighted that we’ve taken the first step, i.e., voting in an administration whose president and vice president are not oil company executives. But from here, I think we just have to hope that Obama administration imposes tariffs that cause gasoline users to pay the true cost of the fuel. If it does, things will change very quickly.”