If Not Cap & Trade, Then What?

Many proponents of the environmental movement were upset when the Cap and Trade bill fell through in Congress. While it certainly wasn't the best news for environmentalists, this article from the New York Times suggests that it there might be a better option for reducing our dependance on dirty energy.

The author, David Leonhardt, lays out a few reasons why we should stop counting on cap and trade. First of all, we have to ask when Congress will even take another shot at it. Then, we have to wonder how effective it would even be in causing change. Although cap and trade would force companies to reduce their energy use, it would probably be in smaller ways rather than ways that encourage groundbreaking innovation in clean energy. What fast growing developing nations need are groundbreaking innovation.

What could promote this innovation is direct investment into making clean energy technologies more affordable. A surprising number of people agree. The conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Brookings Institute are releasing a joint proposal to greatly increase federal spending on clean energy innovation, and to moreover toughen regulation for the use of this money. In other words, more money would be put into research and development into clean energy technologies that are actually working to make clean energy cheaper than the dirty alternative.

The article suggests that, historically, this has been able to work. The military has helped develop and promote a lot of new technologies, and they may be doing the same with clean energy.

While I'm still skeptical as to whether technology of any kind can "save us," I think this article shows us a little ray of hope. First of all, it shows bipartisan work towards a goal that can benefit us all. While this may not ultimately be the solution we need, the fact that unexpected people are working together is an important step.

Second, more investment put into clean energy could help in developing the infrastructure we so desperately need in order to get clean energy off and running. Some companies are already discussing investing significant amounts of money into this, but more federal spending on innovation could make a big difference.

Finally, more people are likely to something that will hopefully decrease the cost of clean energy than anything that causes an increase in oil prices.

In the end, I think the most promising thing about this article is the fact that we're trying something to get us off the path we are currently on. It might not work, but at least we're trying something new.