The New Energy Olympics

While I appreciate the New Energy Olympics comment, as with Olympic competition for so many years until very recent US athletes competed more or less at their own expense, or more driven by private resources and the individual's pure desire to compete. Most global counterparts including EU and Asia literally were supported by the social system.

Since the US began making a run at Renewables, and I was fortunate to be involved in early strategic planning by federal and state, an error in philosophy has in my mind been demonstrated in that a tremendous amount of social resources from federal and state, primarily speaking to the form of grants, have gone towards academia on programs that have little value in full scale. Not all, but many ideas generated within the educational institutional complex have had little to do with real world, or should I say real US form of successful markets, much different than most all other markets globally.

Again there is a philosophical issue here and what is being played out in America is that governing bodies have taken directives to drive the quest for the renewable energy gold medal by attempting to emulate some sort of EU social economic model and not the dynamic capital markets that thrive in the US. In doing so, they have drained private capital markets and tied up creative intellect behind a cushy test tube environment with little incentive to function beyond some name recognition and a tingling feeling that they are doing something noble.

Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends and associates are academics as well as my brother, of whom head of a department at a major US university spends most of his time writing grants. The real issue I am suggesting is that our system of success has historically been demonstrated to be unique and innovative, centered around individuals and private companies' free creativity to generate profit driven ideas. There is far too much human and financial capital heading into the pot of ideas that will never become valid, or sustainable.

We are not Europe. Americans will not pay for true, non subsidized Renewable Energy cost unless they have a vested interest in it or until it reaches a level of cost within reason of alternatives. When gasoline was $ 4.50 there nearly was rioting in the streets and that's nothing compared to what other countries of the world pay.

As a Renewable Energy producer/professional I welcome feed in tariffs and any justifiable approach to encourage free market advancement in utilization of renewable resources– within reason-and more importantly the drive towards energy independence. While there are some complex issues attached to tariffs on biofuel imports, I see no reason not to encourage stability in the production of home grown biofuels until the market matures and/or we receive the same value of federal support as oil.

The playing field is laid out before us within America to make those advancements, but the game has to be played the way we get things done here. Let the governing body(s) and bureaucrats step back from choosing winners and losers while forcing regulation on industry taking on renewable strategies, and the free market of America will champion the evolution in the industry that will capture that Olympia Gold.

If a philosophy change is not made soon in the US then I cannot see how we can out spend or out maneuver the monopoly of the China totalitarian system, they have been at this social engineering a lot longer than we have and frankly I don't think the American people will put up with it much longer.