Today, I would like to ask you to consider investing in a project that would create create two to four million jobs in the United States. The project I have in mind would also make our air and water cleaner, protecting people from diseases and saving endangered species. I haven't even mentioned some of the greatest benefits yet, which could help the entire world. Sounds revolutionary, right?
Actually, the basis of this project was established three decades ago when the U.S. government established the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. As an article in today's New York Times entitled "Energy Research on a Shoestring" explains, the lab is funded so poorly that achieving an ambitious mission is impossible. Despite the fact that Bush himself drew attention to the lab and its goals with a visit a year ago, its funding is now less than it was at the start of the Bush administration. Its annual budget of $200 million represents about what the U.S. spends on one day in Iraq or a bit more than the $166 million the state of Washington may spend to subsidize the construction of a NASCAR track.
NASCAR, however, has achieved something that renewable energy so far has not; it has captured the imagination of a large segment of Americans. While we can cite a number of reasons for the extreme underinvestment in renewable energy, the failure to communicate what a bold energy initiative could achieve and to inspire support for it is one key reason.
President Carter's speech about energy 30 years ago began with the less than promising words, "Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history." Unlike his successor, Carter was not known as a great communicator. Although there are some things in the speech to be admired, overall it conveys the need to sacrifice in order to survive energy scarcity, not a hopeful message about the common good that we can achieve together by using the common wealth.
The focus on oil scarcity also doomed the plan because the decline in oil prices in the 1980s (largely due to growth in North Sea oil production) left little support for continued investment in renewable energy. Ronald Reagan's symbolic action of removing solar water heaters from the White House signaled that the crisis was over.
Appropriate public investment in renewable energy would create jobs in the U.S. that cannot be outsourced overseas, promote public health and a clean environment, protect us from climate crisis, reduce the danger of wars over energy, and create technologies that would help developing nations. However, no single speech by a president or other politicians can overcome the repeated framing of any issue. To promote a strategic initiative, such as that of the Apollo Alliance, which George Lakoff discussed in Don't Think of an Elephant!, requires sustained advocacy by citizens and leaders in ways that challenge outdated or inaccurate ideas and inspire us to adopt new ones.
Can you think of a strategic initiative, whether progressive or conservative, that has received popular support that we can learn from as we seek to encourage investment in renewable energy?
Crossposted at Rockridge Nation