Alternate Current — A time of opportunity – will we seize the day?
These challenging times move at an accelerated rate due to technology, but our government, bound by self- imposed rules not contained in our Constitution, moves at a snail”s pace. While one party wants to take timid baby steps, the other party is doing “The full Nancy” by just saying “NO!” to everything. Opportunities, such as obtaining our economic freedom by rapid development of green energy, present themselves briefly and are snapped up by those who can keep up with the times. Will the batteries, wind turbines and solar panels we need be built in America or China, will those jobs go to Americans or Germans? So far, the results don”t look good for the home team.
As of today, most batteries and solar panels are being manufactured in China, many wind turbines are coming from Siemens, a German company. Why? In large part it”s because those governments have made the commitment to go green as quickly as possible. In some cases they actually subsidize those industries, giving their corporations an advantage over ours, while we have done nothing to develop or protect our market from their products. Instead of “fair” trade, we foolishly cling to the illusion of “free” trade, which apparently means that instead of having reciprocal trade agreements, we allow China, for instance, to insist that we transfer our technology to them if we want access to their market. If one of our corporations wants to sell in China, we have to build a factory in China and give them 51-percent ownership. At the same time, we have no such rules for them to trade here. They steal our patents and copyrights (intellectual property) and manufacture pirated knockoffs with impunity.
The next great economic boom will be in the arena of replacing oil. Whether we drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or deep offshore, oil is a finite resource. Many believe we have already reached “peak oil” in that from now on usage of oil will always outstrip new supplies and that within 50 years or so, oil will be scarce, if still available at all. We use oil not only for fuel, but for fertilizers to satisfy the ever increasing need for food, for plastics to build all the things we now “need” such as the computer I”m using right now and for so much more it”s hard to list it all.
Having already borrowed way too much for utter nonsense that has produced no lasting benefit for the American people, it would be irresponsible for our government to borrow more for green energy, even though we obviously need it desperately for so many reasons. Ron Paul has called for all of our foreign military bases to be closed to save money and I totally agree with him on this point. Why we still have 47,000 troops stationed in Japan, 65 years after the end of World War II when Japan, now one of our closest allies, has tens of thousands marching in protest (Jan. 30, 2010) is inexplicable. We still have 62,000 troops stationed in Germany and believe it or not, have squadrons of F-15 fighters in such dangerous places as England and Iceland. No kidding, Iceland.
This would in no way limit our ability to project a military presence or deterrent all around the world should the actual need present itself. We currently have 11 nuclear powered “super carriers” (e-mail me for a list) and their task forces on active duty. Each task force has more destructive power than all ordinances exploded during World War II and one can be on any doorstep within hours, their aircraft much sooner. We have a 12th such carrier being constructed and 75 nuclear submarines.
Why not take one-half of the money saved and create a Civilian Energy Corps? It makes more sense to issue paychecks to former auto workers, who could use our idled GM plants to produce car batteries, wind turbines and solar panels, than unemployment checks. Every Federal building could be so equipped, saving us billions every year on utilities, the other half of the military savings could be required to pay down our debt. Within three years, after the retrofits are completed, the factories could be sold at a profit while the energy savings continue forever.
Lowell Grant is a weekly columnist for the Record-Bee. E-mail him at c21vintage@aol.com.
