Friday, February 27, 2009
3:22 PM
Energy/Alternative Energy
Since the onset of the current economic crisis, many governments around the world have passed "stimulus packages" that allocate government funding to various projects, tax cuts, and incentives in an attempt to reinvigorate the slumping global economy. Included in many of these stimulus packages are provisions that invest in the emerging trend of renewable energy; so far, governments around the world have committed an estimated $200 billion or more toward technologies that will reduce our dependence on dirty fossil fuels and encourage development in "green" industries despite the global economic downturn. Moreover, since July 2008, governments in Europe, Asia, and the United States have created more than 250 policies that support alternative forms of energy. In the United States, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that President Obama signed this month provides about $106 billion for green energy, including tax breaks, loan guarantees, and incentives, and includes $18 billion in investments for improving mass transit. The European Union has allocated some $60 billion to green measures in its own stimulus bill. Twenty-eight U.S. states have created new alternative energy standards, and many environmentalists and politicians are pushing for a national policy.
These actions prove that many governments are now in full support of the environmental movement, which has been slowly building for the past few decades. This is monumental news for those who have supported a push toward renewable energy for years. While this move is somewhat belated (and possibly could have been implemented in a more practical manner some years ago had it gotten the support it needed from our leaders), it indicates that governments at this time are very serious about dealing with the issues of climate change and renewable energy. The fact of the matter is that we have and have always had (at least as long as we've relied on fossil fuels such as petroleum) a finite amount of energy resources--in fact, we have already reached the theorized "peak oil", and oil production has begun its inevitable decline. The fact that governments have now embraced this simple fact of nature is very reassuring indeed; we can now realistically foresee a future in which the components of energy production are ultra-efficient as well as virtually non-polluting. I also believe that this is a key to fixing the global financial crisis: this new sector has the potential to grow tremendously, assuredly bringing with it economic growth and millions of new jobs. Loan guarantees for renewable energy in the ARRA should help the markets develop despite the turbulent economic times. All things considered, I think we can safely say that energy development is at long last on the right track.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE51N4OM20090224
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