In Pasadena this week, three women representing firms behind the various stages of funding spoke last Wednesday afternoon. They stressed the opportunities and challenges that come with outside funding, as well as growth industries for the next several years.
The economic arguments against subsidies include the one that government should not pick “losers” over “winners.” Fair argument. But the reality of Republican Whip Eric Cantor’s “You Cut” scheme: just about all the suggested programs are those that (surprise!) would be in the tea party’s crosshairs. What about Republican-supported programs?
The President punted tonight. He could have given a clarion call to push for a clean energy policy that would have been painful, but necessary. He could have given a “teachable moment” about the costs involved with our addiction to oil. But instead he gave us platitudes, boasted about his energy secretary’s Nobel Prize (why do we keep hearing that?), asked that we pray, and made no attempt to push Congress to pass any energy-related legislation.
To those Americans who dismiss Europe as a backward, leftist, and socialist land, I say, back off—the business leaders I met and to whom I listened at the GRI Conference would run circles around my business school professors and most managers across the pond! To those Europeans who slam America as a consumer-frenzied, overindulged society, I say, not so fast: based on the crowds I saw in the shopping areas and the lines I saw in the stores, I think both sides of the Atlantic know how to spend a buck (or Euro).
The Obama Administration told us that these oil leases were approved for drilling because they were far from the coast, were “safe,” and in the spirit of compromise, offshore drilling advocates were thrown a bone in order to get some kind of climate change legislation crammed through Congress.
Search the Internet and troll through Twitter, and you’ll find all sorts of compelling, even, cool stories about algae and how this may be our ticket away from dependency on fossil fuels. By any measure, there are about 200 to 250 start-ups in this fledgling industry.
Last week the World Bank voted to loan Eskom, a South African energy producer, US$3.75 billion to build a new coal power plant. Politicians in the UK and my beloved USA went ballistic. They howled that it was a tragedy for the World Bank to sabotage the work that has been done at ameliorating climate change.
Yesterday I went to one of the best one day symposia I have attended, a gathering focused on India and Climate Change. I am glad I attended because it gave me insight as to what role India can and should have in the global debate over environmental policy. Too often, global political leaders and environmentalists lump together China and India when they discuss what these nations should do in combating climate change