INSLEE: The fact of the matter is, if we’re going to grow our economy, if we are going to seize the jobs of the next century, we have to get busy focusing our national debate and our national investment on the new clean energy technologies, or China is going to eat our lunch.
China right now is preparing to roll out electric cars, lithium ion batteries, solar cells, cellulosic ethanol. This is where the future of energy is. We’ve a finite resource in oil, just like we had a finite resource in whale oil, and we made a transition. And we have to really focus our national energies in a bipartisan way, I would hope, on finding our way to compete with China to really build new energy sources of the future.
That’s Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) on Fox News Thursday. ThinkProgress has the story and video in this cross-post:
In an interview that aired last night on Fox News, Sarah Palin pushed the GOP’s anti-innovation meme and attacked those in Congress who oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Palin called them “extreme politicians over on the left who want to buy into” arguments against drilling from “extreme environmentalists.” The former GOP half-term Alaska governor argued that the U.S. needs “to drill and fill up the pipeline again.”
But in a separate interview later in the program, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) noted that drilling in the Arctic refuge really won’t solve America’s energy problems, won’t have much impact on the price of gasoline, and most importantly, moves the United States away from the direction of moving to a clean energy economy. Then, appearing to borrow a phrase from his GOP colleague Rep. Bob Inglis (SC), Inslee noted that China will outpace the U.S. if it doesn’t focus more on a clean energy economy:
Not only is Inslee correct that oil drilling in the Arctic refuge will have little impact on the American economy, but he’s also right that when in comes to clean energy production, China “is going to eat our lunch.” The New York Times reported earlier this year that China is the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels and new report out last month found that China “is a surprise leader in clean energy efforts“:
“The Chinese leadership have made a strategic decision that they missed out on the last two industrial revolutions and they don’t want to miss out on the third one,” said Erwin Jackson, director of the Climate Institute, of China’s “surprising” dominance.
“They are now commanding the largest market share of clean energy investment at a global level as a result,” Jackson told AFP.
China’s investment in clean energy topped 35 billion US dollars in 2009 compared with 11 billion in Britain and 18 billion in the United States, and Jackson said it was set to increase tenfold over the next decade.
“The race toward a clean-energy future is underway, and those nations that lead will reap enormous economic benefits,” CAP’s Kate Gordon noted in a report on clean energy this year, adding that “[b]y 2020, clean energy will be one of the world’s biggest industries, totaling as much as $2.3 trillion” and that China “has made a serious commitment to building that revolution with low-carbon, low-waste technologies and infrastructure.”
– Ben Armbruster, ThinkProgress
Related Posts:
- Green Giant: Beijing’s crash program for clean energy.
- China begins transition to a clean-energy economy
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Only on Fox News do I hear the host shuffling papers and writing on them, and only when a non-conservative guest is speaking. I’ve encountered Sean Hannity doing this frequently. Is Fox purposefully setting their microphones in a way that causes this distraction and their hosts’ exploiting it intentional?
Oil sources are totally biased in reporting …
According to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, Chinese companies have spent $24.6 billion on overseas oil and gas acquisitions so far this year http://www.investmentu.com/2010/November/chinas-oil-companies-new-kids-on-block.html
China Ousts U.S. as Most Attractive Market for Renewable Energy Investing
China for the first time has overtaken the United States as the most attractive country for renewable energy investment, according to a quarterly index ranking released yesterday (Wednesday) by accounting firm Ernst & Young. http://moneymorning.com/2010/09/09/renewable-energy/
Renewable Energy Investment May Reach $200 Billion in 2010 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-17/renewable-energy-investment-may-reach-200-billion-in-2010.html
Update (10/19/2010):
Chinese Five Year Plan Set to Include Strict Energy Goals Backed By Massive Clean Technology Investment Plan
Chinese leaders are planning to introduce the nation’s new five year economic plan to the National People’s Congress today, which will reportedly include a significant escalation in nationwide carbon emissions intensity and energy efficiency targets. The plan will set a goal of a 15 to 20 percent reduction in energy intensity and a 40 to 45 percent reduction in carbon intensity of the economy by 2025. These targets will be backed by a massive new government investment plan directing $753 billion (5 trillion yuan) towards clean technology development and deployment over the next 10 years. http://thebreakthrough.org/blog//2010/11/tracking_a_rising_tiger_china-print.html
This was great until he got to the part about “focusing our energies in a bipartisan way”. Ain’t gonna happen. The Republicans are marinated in oil.
Seriously, let the Repubs drill in ANWR.
Its disappointing reserves — and their failure to plan for a progressive future — will cost them quite dearly in the end.
If it wasn’t such a blow to wildlife I would agree on letting drilling in ANWR just to shut them up when in two years the oil run’s out there. They throw it at us as if it would really save our bacon when they know full well it’s not even a full drop in the bucket of U.S. consumption. It will have far more negitive affects than positive. If we don’t move our behind’s we will soon be looked at by the rest of the world as that dirty second class country that couldn’t change.
He nailed it.
Ryan wrote: “Seriously, let the Repubs drill in ANWR.”
The political problem with that is the time lag: Wells can’t start to produce until well into the 2012 presidential term, if then. So the Republicans can play up the advantages and never have to face the liabilities until Obama wins a second term, or fails to.
The only mistake Inslee makes is with tense. I just returned from a trip to China: they already are eating our lunch with regard to renewables.
It is rate to find a politician these days that gets it. I wish he would take on Obama in 2012.
We are FAR too late to make a dent in the world’s investment opportunities for renewables. With morons like Palin still singing the praises of Past Days and current oil investment opportunities, we will NEVER catch up.
The W years will be looked back upon as the beginning of the end. The time to act was in 2000, but no substantial movement took place. Now, the rest of the world has already locked up the industrial capacity and has far outstripped the US’s ability to catch up.
Thank you, GOP. YOU and your supporters will be looked back upon as the main reason why our national debt will never be adequately serviced. Only thru investment in new renewable technologies would we have even had a chance to do so. Instead, YOUR children will reap the whirlwind instead of savings.
This is only about food. If oil supply was in peril, now that would be something to get concerned about.
THings are getting interesting….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/27/china-bans-hoarding-of-oi_n_787632.html
Diesel supplies already were running low after thousands of factories bought diesel generators to cope with power cuts imposed by authorities to meet energy-saving goals, further boosting demand.
Not exactly clean… but the Indian way…
India Now Has 20 Operational Nuclear Reactors
India’s twentieth nuclear power plant has become operational at Kaiga, taking the total installed atomic power capacity in the country to 4780 megawatts. Only six countries in the world currently operate 20 or more nuclear reactor. http://www.newslook.com/videos/269594-india-now-has-20-operational-nuclear-reactors?autoplay=true
Inslee, TAKE ON OBAMA IN 2012. In 1983 Obama would have been a good president. He doesn’t get it, you do. He’s been bogged down by the details, you will get the big picture…that we can’t screw this thing up for our grandchildren.
Just wanted to add that Germany had a created value from investment and operations of renewable energy of 35 bn € in 2009, with investments of over 20bn €. (link in german http://www.bmu.de/pressemitteilungen/aktuelle_pressemitteilungen/pm/46344.php )