There's a good Op-Ed over at 'Truthout' on the rapid advancing alternative energy industry that's been happening in Europe. Plenty of news over the past couple of years about the other side of the planet, China and the other countries in that sphere.
And to think it was us, in the U.S., that had started down the road with alternative energy development some forty years ago, manufacturing and installing, how do I know I was helping install a few or on jobs sites where they were being installed by forward thinking people. We were quickly blocked from developing another possible huge advanced industry by the well-financed, even then, of the special interests groups that saw it as a threat, they now heavily fund the climate change deniers.
and Why We're {the U.S.} Being Left in the Dust
12 December 2012 - Americans' greatest challenge in energy generation is appreciating what is possible because too many of us don't know what is already happening in other parts of the world - for example, the powerful story of Europe's energy transformation.
When residents of the small city of Freiburg, Germany, go to school or work in the morning, they pass dozens of solar installations. There are solar panels on homes, on churches, on the facade of the main train station, on the soccer stadium, throughout a "solar housing development" and a "solar business park" and on the roofs of schools.
All told, Freiburg's solar photovoltaic (PV) installations produce enough electricity to meet the needs of tens of thousands of homes.
Additionally, five large wind turbines are situated on hilltops within the city's boundaries and contribute to the town's energy supply. Small hydroelectric plants sit on the river, as well as combined heat and power plants and biomass plants that burn biogas and rapeseed oil, along with other facilities that burn wood chips and pellets. read more>>>
We once built a powerful and growing economy in other industries over and over in many area's and were envied by much of the world. As we not only built them our innovative work force quickly advanced the products made to better quality and at fair prices so the rapidly growing middle class could easily afford to own to make their lives easier and more enjoyable and more. Well paid jobs, growth in manufacturing safety and customer service and much more led to many companies becoming well known corporations. That blocking back then also came with the start of our shipping our innovative and experienced trades to the countries that envied us. They now are quickly moving forward with what we started and are rapidly bringing innovations to the products that should already be in existence and working for a better cleaner world and their rapidly growing economies.
There's some good news coming on the subject for the 113th Congress from Sen. Boxer.
Sen. Boxer announces plans to form ‘climate change caucus’
12/11/12 - Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she’s forming a “climate change caucus,” and argues that Hurricane Sandy “changed a lot of minds” on the topic.
The move signals that Democrats might again be ready to aggressively promote bills to curb greenhouse gas emissions, even as the political prospects for global warming legislation remain remote in Congress.
“I am going to form a climate change caucus, because people are coming up to me, they really want to get into this. I think Sandy changed a lot of minds,” Boxer told reporters in the Capitol. read more>>>
There is bad news, and worry, in the manufacturing community. Specifically the manufacturing of wind turbines. I caught an article on earlier today but can't find it now, sorry. But it said that companies are already cutting back on workers hours, from 40 to 32 a week and may start layoffs soon, some 37,000 jobs could be lost, if Congress doesn't pass the tax credit put in place to help these growing small businesses by the end of the year or very quickly, though layoffs will probably already have happened and some companies may have already folded, in the 113th Congress when it gets in session.