Will Alternative Energy Save the American Economy?

December 7th, 2008 | by alexis |

The development of alternative energy was a large part of every candidate’s platform in the recent US election. The arguments from the candidates, both Democrat and Republic, were similar: we need to gain energy independence from Middle Eastern oil producers; we need to stop polluting the environment by burning fossil fuels; and we need to build a new, robust alternative energy in the United States.

While the entire debate seems like a giant political echo chamber on the surface, it is an important part of ways in which the American economy must evolve over the next decade in order to remain a world power. The argument for the development of alternative energy seems logically unnecessary: there exists a finite amount of oil in the world, and it will one day run out.

But corporate interests and a partisan power struggle have muddied the information available on the necessity of taking the lead in the world’s quest for green energy. Whether or not the country will act fast or significantly enough to allow green energy to save the economy remains to be seen.

How Can America Lead the Green Energy Revolution?

The key to shifting the American energy infrastructure from fossil fuels to clean solutions like solar and wind lies in profitability. Any changes to energy infrastructure require massive amounts of capital with long timelines to returns. The world’s largest energy corporations are not interested in developing clean energy generation plants unless their investments can be returned within a reasonable amount of time — and that can’t be assured.

So the pressure, then, must be applied from the demand side — that is, consumers must vote with their wallets. If demand decreases because of a public movement towards clean (and not necessarily cheap) energy, then the corporations will follow suit. Public figures like Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens have increased public awareness of the possibility of a clean American energy infrastructure, with T. Boone Pickens going so far as to prove its viability and profitability.

But the shift won’t occur until public support for clean energy is made clear through spending habits, and that’s nearly impossible without some sort of transitional platform between fossil fuels and clean energy — as in, a consumer movement that highlights the ideological aspect of clean energy without being bound by complete affordability.

This is happening: hybrid cars, which generally cost more than their fossil-fuel based counterparts, and electric roadsters increase in popularity year after year. These trends will motivate corporations to develop the technology that can make these products both ideologically and economically palatable, and not just mediums for the wealthy to make public statements.

What is the American Clean Energy Industry?

The clean energy industry is meant to replace the sectors of the economy that have been outsourced or otherwise diminished over the past few decades: the electronics industry, the automobile industry, the steel industry, etc. These jobs are considered “un-outsourceable” because they’ll need to be based domestically in order to meet domestic demand.

These “green jobs” are not contained exclusively within the realm of technological development. That is, the green energy won’t only require PhDs to function — an entire supply chain will be needed to support the development and maintenance of a clean energy industry in the United States, and this will benefit the entire country.

Here’s an example: a new wind farm turbine is developed by engineers with PhDs in a lab somewhere. But that turbine must be assembled, transported, and maintained — and that process will require hundreds if not thousands of people. It’s an American industry for Americans.

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