A wind turbine blade is unveiled during the opening of the Vestas blade factory in Colorado.

The United States has historically been a leader in invention and innovation; however, our leadership in manufacturing has fallen dramatically, hurting our ability to compete on the global stage. With the dawn of a new era in the energy sector, America has a unique opportunity to grow its economy and create new jobs while reducing emissions and combating climate change.

A new report on low-carbon innovation written by Bracken Hendricks, Lisbeth Kaufman and Sean Pool of the Center for American Progress outlines how this transition may unfold.

Read more

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who failed in his bid to take the chairmanship of the House energy committee from Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), has begun the new congress with a new assault on his fellow Republican. In the first day of the 112th Congress, Barton led a pack of 13 anti-innovation Republicans with the introduction of legislation (H.R. 91) to strike down Upton’s 2007 lighting efficiency standard, painted by conservative activists as a “light bulb ban.” In a statement, Barton accused Upton of legislating an assault on “personal freedom” and “manipulating the free market”:

This is about more than just energy consumption, it is about personal freedom. Voters sent us a message in November that it is time for politicians and activists in Washington to stop interfering in their lives and manipulating the free market. The light bulb ban is the perfect symbol of that frustration. People don’t want congress dictating what light fixtures they can use.

“From the health insurance you’re allowed to have, to the car you can drive, to the light bulbs you can buy,” the polluter-funded Barton concluded, “Washington is making too many decisions that are better left to you and your family.”

Barton’s attack on the tyranny of energy-efficient light bulbs is consponsored by Reps. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Michael Burgess (TX), Rob Bishop (UT), Tom McClintock (CA), Howard Coble (NC), Ron Paul (TX), Todd Akin (MO), Ann-Marie Buerkle (NY), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Steve Scalise, Paul Broun (GA), Dan Burton (IN), and Cliff Stearns (FL). Of these 14 representatives, only Rep. Coble admits that global warming pollution is a real threat.

Upton has already reneged his position on light-bulb efficiency, which was supported by former speaker Rep. Denny Hastert (R-IL), Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), and the light bulb industry itself. In December, Upton told Politico “he’s not afraid to go back after an issue he once supported but that has come under withering assault on the conservative airwaves, including on Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck’s talk shows.”

There was, in fact, no bill to ban incandescent light bulbs. Because of the advanced light-bulb standards Upton helped pass in 2007, “the incandescent bulb is turning into a case study of the way government mandates can spur innovation,” the New York Times reported last year. “There have been more incandescent innovations in the last three years than in the last two decades.”

While the Obama administration is working to restore American innovation, particularly through Secretary Steven Chu’s Department of Energy, the Tea Party movement is increasingly attacking 21st-century jobs on all fronts. Rush Limbaugh is leading the charge against the breakthrough Chevy Volt, Republican governors are killing high-speed rail, Glenn Beck is cooking up conspiracy theories about smart grid technology, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is trying to kill the wind industry, and the entire right-wing movement is convinced green jobs are going to destroy the United States economy.

At a National Press Club speech today, Secretary Chu warned that China is outpacing the United States in innovating clean technology, and pointed to a new report from the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that recommended an integrated federal energy policy to spur domestic progress. “I believe innovation adds to the wealth of society,” he said. “Science and technology are at the heart of innovation.”

In a blogger call following the speech, the Wonk Room asked Secretary Chu about the right wing’s opposition to clean technology innovation. Chu derided this desire to turn back the clock, saying that the “United States is still the greatest innovation machine in the world”:

You know, what can I say? I disagree.

The people who are saying we don’t want to change are holding a view that when a new technology comes along it’s going to displace an old technology. The people whose business depends on old technology might get nervous. They can adapt and innovate or fight the change. That used to work when we weren’t so interconnected. In this new very flat world of multinational corporations, virtually all of western Europe, Japan, Korea, China are saying, “This is our future.” If we don’t go in this direction, we will be importing many of the technologies we could be exporting. I just installed an on-demand water heater and there were no American manufacturers. There were Korean, Japanese, European manufacturers. Kind of scary.

The American people need to be convinced. Or I should say: Does everyone else know something we don’t know or do we know something everyone else doesn’t know?

I believe the right direction is to develop these technologies. The United States is still the greatest innovation machine in the world. There will always be people who don’t want to go in a new direction, but you can’t go back to 1950 when we were exporting oil. We have to press forward. It’s very important to get that message out. This is how we have always achieved. Not by clutching to the past but by seizing the future.

“We are no longer the leaders in manufacturing, but more startlingly, we are no longer the leaders in high-tech manufacturing,” Chu said in his Press Club speech. However, he saw room for hope. “The good news is that if I look across the country, young people are seeing the energy and climate challenge and going into science and technology.”