Two items of interest in the NY Times today. Here’s the first:
Stanley Reed and Keith Bradsher report on efforts in Italy by a company gambling on an unproven technology to try to beat China with panels that are more expensive — but also more efficient. The problem, as the selection below indicates, is whether they can produce them in volumes sufficient to pay back their investment before China swamps the market with something comparable or even lower prices on conventional panels.
...Solar energy was largely commercialized in Europe around 20 years ago. Governments stimulated demand with generous subsidies, encouraging homeowners to install panels on their roofs and utilities to invest in larger-scale solar farms.
But its popularity was limited in those early years by the high cost of the electricity that was being generated. Seeing little prospect of widespread sales, companies in the West built small factories, the largest of which had only a few hundred workers.
Beijing changed that equation with an ambitious industrial policy. It pushed state-owned banks to lend to renewable energy projects at low interest rates. Factories employing thousands of workers were built, leading to hefty economies of scale. By 2015, panel prices worldwide had dropped 90 percent from a decade earlier, opening up a wider range of customers able to afford them.
Strategic investment by the Chinese government has made them the dominant player in the global market — and critically positioned China for a future in which reducing carbon emissions is going to become a matter of survival. Europe is trying to stay in the game.
In a world where competition and markets are global, and climate change threatens us all, there is no excuse for not going big
America’s industrial policy is non-existent — that would be socialism/communism, etc. and the Free Marketeers won’t stand for it. The current de facto industrial policy is determined by whatever plays well on FOX and which industries are willing to win the Citizens United “money is speech” battle to buy off Congress. /s
“Beautiful clean coal...”
Meanwhile, Timothy Egan has some interesting numbers on display in an Opinion piece.
This silent majority will no longer stand by as the Trump administration tries to destroy a century of bipartisan love of the land.
Timothy Egan points out that Trump and Republican policies are pissing off people in huge numbers. What happens if Democrats and Progressives can mobilize them? Here’s a few examples.
...if just one unorganized voting segment, the 60 million bird-watchers of America, sent a unified political message this fall, you’d have a political block with more than 10 times the membership of the National Rifle Association.
...the outdoor recreation industry has been roaring along. It is a $374-billion-a-year economy, by the government’s own calculation, and more than twice that size by private estimates.
That’s more than mining, oil, gas and logging combined…
...retailers who sell to the 144 million Americans who participated in an outdoor activity last year, or the 344 million overall visitors to national parks, vowed to flex some muscle in the upcoming midterm elections.
They scoffed at the absurdity of propping up coal when there are more yoga instructors in the United States than people who work to produce a filthy fuel source…
Republicans may sneer at bird watchers and tree-huggers, and bemoan “job-killing regulations” — but their own base includes people who hunt, fish, and make their living from the land. The conservative media machine has stigmatized environmentalism, attacking it as Big Government intruding in people’s lives, but the corporate greed Republicans have unleashed to rape the earth is too blatant to ignore.
Democratic candidates should prepare to surf this wave and do everything they can to encourage it. Egan has identified some big groups to mobilize. There are ways to connect this to local interests as well as the whole planet. There’s no lack of horrible Republican policies to point to, or shortage of disasters in the making.
Go big or go home is the saying — except this is happening in our home, right where we live. We can only ignore it so long.
It’s time to defend our home.
NOTE: For those who intend to comment the environment doesn’t poll well, people who feel this way already vote Democratic so we don’t need to push it, and that we should focus on issues that do poll well...
- That’s the kind of passive thinking that lets Republicans set the agenda and control the narrative. They don’t chase public sentiment — they shape it.
- If we can't get people to engage on issues that really matter, and matter RIGHT NOW, how do we expect them to support us on this if we do get elected?
- Those who don’t like this approach because it invokes fear and anger need to remember those emotions drive survival instincts and are appropriate in the face of real threats. The key is to couple them with positive actions that bring people together in that drive to survive.