How will policy changes in an Obama administration change the equation? Has increased demand via new incentives been factored into the equation? What new incentives will it create? Won’t the home remodeling industry sans mortgage refinancesd spending be desperate for opportunities and can’t energy retrofits—including distributed alt. energy—be their next big thing with a spur form government financing?

Green Realities: Econ Beats Eco
By Paul Taylor

The global economic downturn will sideline the recent years of obsessive environmental politicking. The environmental movement has been called the most densely organized political movement in human history; with environmental groups growing from two thousand to over four thousand during the 1990s. Green groups have leveraged their roughly $1.5 billion in annual nonprofit assets to drown us in a tsunami of eco-propaganda and green marketeering. Critically missing from this eco-emersion in fanciful ideas for green living has been disclosure and discussion of the actual capital and maintenance costs involved.  Environmental protections in developed democratic-capitalist countries are a luxury that developing countries cannot afford even in prosperous times, and environmentalism will become a lower priority for all as the global economic decline deepens. The fortunes made by eco-nonprofits—many of whose idle assets sat in what were extravagant hedge funds and private equity accounts— will dry up as donors tighten their belts.
Government-regulated environmental controls in the US cost about 5% of US gross domestic product (GDP) – about the same as US expenditures for national security and homeland security combined, or what the US spends on foreign oil annually, or the size of the recent US Treasury “banking bailout,” or the assets of all US nonprofits which number over one million. United Nations (UN) estimates for Kyoto-like global warming controls during this century would cost another 2% in GDP. European Union (EU) carbon emission controls have failed both environmental and market goals. The EU countries are now falling faster than US markets into the global credit market freeze – partially due to the burdens of their hasty climate control regulations.
The new green realities are that global economics conditions will, and must, bring rational science and economics back into environmental issues after decades of irrational and duplicitous eco-politics.

Thanks, Michael.  Interesting year indeed.  Keep on analyzing!

Not to worry, as we do the “happy dance” around the pumps OPEC is planning production output cuts to raise prices of oil back up to between 75.-100. per barrel again. This past year the historically high cost of gas seriously damaged our economy and society. We must be moving away from our mistakes of the past. Many European count ires have suffered higher fuel costs than we have, therefore they realized the importance of producing more energy efficient cars. We need to take some of these billions in bailout/stimulus dollars and invest in energy Independence. I just read Jeff Wilson’s new book The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW. This should be a required read before anymore bailout meetings. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to charge and drive an electric car. The electricity to charge the car could be partially or in most cases totally generated by wind or solar power. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drivetrains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. I encourage all to read this book. I also encourage all to visit the Better Place web site. They are the company that is setting up infrastructures in 3 maj CA cities as well as Hawaii to accommodate charging electric vehicles. If you click on the get involved button you can sign an online petition to bring such projects to your area. Jeff Wilson has a fascinating article on his blog called “How Much Electricity Does It Take To Replace Gasoline.” Fascinating. http://planet.betterplace.com/profiles/blogs/how-much-electricity-does-it