The Macroeconomics of Renewable Energy

I’ve been fascinated recently with the subject of the macroeconomics that surrounds renewables, and, in particular, the subsidies that keep fossil fuels in place by holding the price of oil down artificially. In response to this discussion, frequent commentor Dr. Bob Goldschmidt writes:

The biggest subsidy of all is the $500+ billion a year of military costs used to secure the world’s imported oil supply. This does not appear at the pump and is paid for by the American taxpayers. If, because we have not made a timely effort to reduce oil consumption, Iran has enough income to go nuclear, how much will that cost?

I’m about to conduct a series of radio and TV interviews to promote my book, and I intend to make this the overall theme of the tour, i.e., clean energy is the bargain of the century. We don’t have to look too far to see the incredible costs of our current energy policy (or lack thereof). 

The optimist in me thinks it’s only a matter of time until enough people see through this, realize the outrageous fiscal and moral costs of our nation’s refusal to take a leadership role in energy, and insist that we change our course here.