Jumpstarting the Green Economy
Without clear direction from Washington on how the U.S. will deal with carbon emissions, corporate America is falling behind foreign firms in the race to invest in renewable energy.
It doesn’t seem right to hurl depressing statistics at recession-weary Americans, just as we’re kinda sorta climbing out of the nastiest economic downturn since the Big One back in the 1930s.
Still, there’s no sense avoiding facts and figures that communicate economic vulnerabilities and maybe prod us into doing something about them – like putting a price tag on carbon pollution.
Here’s one for you. Recently, the Pew Charitable Trusts put out a report comparing the U.S. with other countries on investments in renewable energy technologies. There are various ways to slice the numbers. One is investments as a percentage of gross domestic product.
On that score, the U.S. doesn’t crack the Top 10. We’re No. 11 behind Mexico. That’s right - Mexico.
That is largely because billions of corporate America’s investment dollars are sitting on the sidelines waiting for clear direction on how the U.S. is going to deal with carbon emissions.
That brings up an anecdote. At the rollout of the climate and energy bill May 12, Honeywell CEO Dave Cote told a story about his company’s solar water heaters. “We’ve sold thousands of them in India. We’ve sold none in the United States. There’s a demand for them there. Here, we don’t even talk about them,” Cote told the press conference.
Sure, putting a price on carbon would make life easier for Honeywell’s solar water heater salesmen working the U.S. market. Much more importantly, however, it would send energy and technology markets a signal that the disposal of carbon pollution into the atmosphere carries costs and catalyze investments in carbon-free energy technologies that can start shaving down those costs.
And criminy, if we don’t soon get our act together—and at least start outpacing Mexico in the GDP intensity of our energy technology investments—the cross-border traffic flow across the Sonoran Desert might just take a permanent turn in the other direction.