Good Intentions from Lef t and Right: A Good Sign For Tomorrow's Energy Economy

Our Challenges Are Vast Enough To Pull Us All Together

James A. Croce, CEO NextEnergy

This is not about "left" and "right" presidential candidates. My use of the terms are a little more "macro" and deal with this past month's G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan which concluded July 11 (which I characterize for my purposes as "the right") and former Vice President Albert Gore's speech delivered on July 17 in Washington, D.C. on behalf of The Alliance for Climate Protection entitled "A Generational Challenge to Repower America" (which I characterize for my purposes as "the left".)

The goals declared in the two statements by both of these esteemed bodies are completely aligned, with the only basic deviation being Gore's focus on the United States, while the G8 focused on the entire planet. But the goals are essentially identical; reduce carbon emissions, embrace renewable energy, reduce demand for fossil fuels, recharge both national and international economies with clean energy economies . by now the list of tantalizing benefits slowly coming within reach as the Clean Energy Era struggles to be born is familiar to each and every one of us.

But the approach of the G8 Summit (originally named for and attended by the 8 most developed nations in the world; however, "developed" has expanded into "developed and developing" and July's G8 Summit included 16 nations plus the European Union) in combating climate change is markedly different than Mr. Gore's proposal. The G8 wants to align country leadership; i.e. politicians, business leaders, lending institutions, large corporations, etc. with each other to foster tens of billions of dollars of investment in essentially creating a business market for industries that would mitigate and ultimately reverse climate change. The G8 goal is ambitious; cut carbon emissions in half worldwide by 2050.

Mr. Gore's approach takes another tack. He wants to inspire a citizen army of 10 million Americans to raise their collective voice as one and demand, with the power of the vote I assume, that the United States generate 100% of its electricity from renewable resources in 10 years (or by 2019.)

I call the G8 the "right" because it bypasses citizenry in favor of so-called responsible business builders. I assign Mr. Gore's remarks to the "left" because they bypass so called responsible business builders in favor of the citizenry. Both approaches are outlandishly ambitious and appropriately motivating.

I have to confess, my knee-jerk reaction to Mr. Gore's remarks was somewhat hostile, because his expressed desire for the U.S. to completely disengage from 100's of billions of dollars of fossil fuel infrastructure and invent wholly new technologies to store solar and wind energy at their sources and deliver this stored electricity to U.S. cities all over our country within 10 years was, and is, if not impossible then extremely impractical. And I equated impractical with irresponsible.

But I think I underestimated and underappreciated Mr. Gore's strategy. As he pointed out, in 1960 putting a man on the moon in ten years seemed a very impractical goal, too, if not impossible. But we did it.

I was equally discouraged by the G8 approach, in that it seems like a whole lot of "talk about talking" and not much of a clear road map with assigned tasks and action items. My hope is that the "right" will be pushed into positive action sooner by pressures from the "left" and that the rose-colored dream of the "left" will be made real sooner by the market-driven moneymen on the "right." That's the only way this is all going to work effectively.

We are at a unique point in history. No one asked for the electric light, but we built it and illuminated the world. No asked for the automobile, but we built it, too. Now, for the first time, the world is asking for solutions to mitigate climate change and foster renewable energy. And that's the compelling difference that will make ALL the difference.

Let the "left" chant and vote. Let the "right" plot and profit.

Because the passions from both sides will have to be deeply stirred before we can truly beat this thing.

The problem is that mitigating climate change is going to be a lot tougher than putting a man on the moon.

NextEnergy paid for placement of this article. Its views do not necessarily reflect those of WWJ Newsradio 950 or CBS Radio.

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