Positioning for the future
Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, wrote an editorial about the energy, jobs and climate bill now before the Senate.
Here is the future that I see. In the coming decades, the laws of supply and demand will almost certainly force oil and gas prices to rise. At the same time, the consequences of climate change will become so starkly apparent that continuing to emit carbon pollution at today's levels will be unacceptable. As a result, clean-energy technologies will be in high demand. Tens of thousands of windmills and solar panels will be manufactured and installed around the world. Consumers will demand more efficient vehicles, appliances, and buildings. There will be a race to produce the most advanced batteries and biofuels.We must ask ourselves: How does the United States want to position itself in this future world? When the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky was asked how he positions himself on the ice, he replied: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it's been." America should do the same.
Illinois citizens should ask the same question. While the national trends are obvious, Illinois politicians continue to throw subsidies aimed at preserving the coal industry instead of skating toward a new energy future.
Coal lobbyists are adept at polluting the political environment with campaign contributions that are hazardous to good public policy. Over the next week I plan to write about several bills passed to subsidize Illinois coal even in the midst of a budget crisis. It's time to look at how realistic moves toward the future are getting body-checked by king coal.