Where's the Vision? Where's the Dream?

	Does the average American know how big the wind industry has become? Probably not.

September 7, 2009 – Vol.14 No.25

WHERE’S THE VISION? WHERE’S THE DREAM?
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

It’s Labor Day today in the U.S. as I write this. It’s a day to celebrate the hard work of Americans. Appropriately, the day marks the end of summer, time to quit lazing around and get back to work. It’s also a gray grim day here in Maryland. The day is not unlike the labor market in the U.S. and elsewhere. The official unemployment average is nearing 10 percent. It already exceeds that – nearly double – in some parts of the country.

For those out of work this Labor Day the holiday isn’t a celebration of hard work: It’s a reminder of another day without work. There’s not much to celebrate for millions of people.

When Barack Obama ran for office he wanted to build a new economy based on so called “green jobs.” ( A term I dislike.) He was never specific about what types of green jobs would be created. (No one has a definition of “green jobs, one of the reasons I don’t like the term.) But at least in the energy sector “green jobs” might have meant occupations that included designing, engineering and building solar electric systems or working on an assembly line that built electric cars. The new economy was to be a great green revolution where jobs would be created by the millions in the same way the building of the information superhighway, the Internet, did during the Clinton years.

So far the green jobs revolution hasn’t materialized. However, to be fair, there have been many announcements of potential job creation, so the revolution may be in its organizational stage and, hopefully, gathering steam. Only time – measured in months, perhaps years – will tell. So it may be too early to judge whether millions of green jobs will materialize.

Still, the President needs to promote the vision. He has the bully pulpit. What he says makes news. His words are repeated over and over in print, online and on the air. He has the ability to be the best advertising spokesman out there.

When the President speaks people listen. They take action. Maybe if he talked-up the green revolution it would actually happen. If people knew what was possible maybe they’d get excited, maybe they would invest, maybe they’d develop new ideas into products that could be the basis for new industries. Jobs, business opportunities and, yes, wealth could be created with just a few, but frequent, words from the President.

People need to know what’s going on, what's happening, what’s possible:

--- Do people know the extent to which both wind and solar energy capacity has already been built in the U.S. as well as the world? They may hear from the mainstream media that wind and solar only make up a few percentage points in overall power generation, but they don’t know how massive some of these projects are or the size of the technology-building industries behind them.

--- Do people know that clean and energy efficient light rail systems can now be built without the overhead wires (the catenary)? This is a breakthrough in transportation. No overhead wires means these systems can be attractive and not property-value reducing eyesores. Building rail systems is a job creator. Rail cars can be imported, but the system of rails and stations can’t.

--- Do people know that it’s possible to build homes that require little, if any, artificial heating or cooling or can generate nearly all their own electricity? Do they know what a savings of a $1000 or much more per year would do to their budgets?

--- Do they know that soon there will be a number of cars on the market that get the equivalent of more than 200 mpg? Do they know how many of these models will be made in the U.S.A.? (At least half a dozen.)

--- Do they know of possible energy breakthroughs on the horizon? Do they know it may be possible to generate power from the wind without the need for massive turbines? Do they know that the much maligned “cold fusion” may actually work to create a nearly limitless source of clean energy?

--- Do they know that carbon dioxide can be taken from the atmosphere while creating a new source of fuel using a method whose roots go back thousands of years. Do they know that this use of biochar as a soil enhancer can also be a money and job maker?

The list could go on. The problem on this Labor Day is that many people have become discouraged. This isn’t good. The President, not his representatives, needs to sell the general public, business, academia and industry as to what can be our future. The President’s job as the nation’s salesman-in-chief needs to start soon. It’s his job to sell the vision, to sell the dream. No one else can do it better.

--- Turbine-Free Wind Energy?

--- Say Goodbye to the Catenary.

--- New Opportunities in Power Transmission and Carbon Sequestration with Climate Action.

--- Proven Passive Solar: Low Cost, Low Energy Homes.

--- Green Homes Go Modular.