Amory Lovins on the Transition to Renewables & How They Enhance Security and Sustainabilty

Ask a different person and you get a different answer when it comes to this subject. What's interesting: The reaction appears to be mixed among those working in the renewable energy sector as to whether the Deepwater Horizon disaster will help shift public support--and policies--toward renewables.

Massey's Upper Big Branch mine explosion and the recent gas explosion in Texas has not made nearly the same impression on the public as Deepwater. Those incidents are tragic but not as rare.

Reading Robert Bryce's "Power Hungry" book right now, which advocates natural gas and nuclear, or, as he refers to it, N2N. Would like to see a discussion between Lovins and Bryce.

Muhammad Makki (Consumer Energy Alliance)
Thanks for posting Dr Lovins views. The importance of renewable and alternatives are now more than ever. But still we are highly dependent on conventional resources and other alternatives have a very small share in overall portfolio. I think we need to ensure a balanced energy policy for the development of all the available resources including unconventional. And as far as the issue of sustainability is concern, I think it was and it is important to ensure the sustainable development of oil and gas resources. And the appropriate way is to adopt an ecosystem based management approach.

Makki is right about our dependence on oil, gas and nuclear only because the US totally lost its solar learning curve from the 70s and early 80s because of the Reagan-Bush energy policy shift. A renewable energy economy takes a lot of time to build and solar and wind in the US had a good start three decades ago which the EU and other countries have now co-opted.

Are others like me who are old enough to have read Lovin's Soft Energy Path: Towards a Durable Peace in 1977 when it was published and who spent their own time and money to get aboard this path as preoccupied as I am with "what ifs"... every time a new hydrocarbon emergency happens? Especially gruesome is having to wonder the ultimate "what if": what if Congress had stiff armed the oil-coal-gas lobbists and had stayed the renewable energy course advocated by Amory Lovins that Jimmy Carter set out in his 1977 energy speech where attaining "energy security" was stated to be "the equivalence of war."

Any other oldies, or worried "youn'uns" angry about the current $1B+USD program to "clean up" old GM plants and other unused manufacturing capacity instead of converting them to solar or wind manufacturing plants? Or, how about building a new SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve), only the P would stand for "P"olysilicon instead of petroleum?

Anyone out there with ideas on how to calculate the potential reality of and paybacks of such an imagined SPR (Strategic Polysilicon Reserve) after evaluating the economic, environmental and social costs of two Persian Gulf Wars, the BP blowout, ongoing Afghan TAP WAR, 47ppm CO2 added to the atmosphere since 1977, loss of solar and wind manufacturing capacity to Germany, Spain, Japan, China, Israel etc.,?... not to mention the loss of our solar learning curve and the impact that has had on our education system?

Looks to me that 1977 could have been a watershed year for renewables had "Soft Energy Path" have been followed. Right on, Amory!!!

Climate change is a global problem, and yet each one of us has the power to make a difference. Even small changes in our daily behaviour can help prevent greenhouse gas emissions without affecting our quality of life. In fact, they can help save us money!