Times are tough right now and everyone is afraid to start new businesses. Green business is hard to sell in case it effects jobs. There is little capitol out there to invest in such things. But what if they make economic sense? If alternative energy was a money maker investment would flow… so how long do we have to wait till the prices of coal and oil get expensive enough to have renew-ables to make sense? Well, let me tell you something. They already make sense. It’s just that our reality is a bit twisted. Coal and Oil is subsidized,and so is Ethanol for that matter. Here is what is so twisted about this picture. Without subsidies coal and oil should be roughly twice the price of what it is now, so even Ethanol wouldn’t need a subsidy. Here is the big picture. Energy in the US is subsidized by the government through taxes to keep the cost of energy low, to maintain the American dream of staying comfortable in our homes and the ability to move about freely in our cars. The reality is that when energy costs are low, we drive ever larger cars and live in less efficient houses and use energy at a rate that is increasing faster that we can find it.  And who pays? Well in the long run, everybody. But in the short term it’s the taxpayer, You and me. But it’s not a direct cost, which is the problem. What if we payed the real cost directly? On our power bill and at the pump?  Perhaps you might have spent the money you used for that room addition for new windows and insulation?  and maybe a smaller car with better mileage would have been in order… These are decisions that would be in line with a world of diminishing resources. The problem with these subsidies is that it changes the way we make decisions. If we cant attribute the costs directly, how do we make a good decision. Imagine you are just one of the kids on the playground, and once a week the teacher put you in detention, but never told you why. You would have no opportunity to change your behavior and get out of detention. You would just think this is a part of the schedule. Well that is essence is what we are doing now. We are the ones paying to keep dirty energy cheap, and wondering when alternative will ever be affordable.  Let’s get out of detention!

If dirty energy lost it’s subsidies, if dirty energy had to clean up after itself, Alternatives would be cheap. Who pays for the destroyed mountains, and habitats from mountain top removal? Who pays to monitor the 27,000 abandoned  wells in the Gulf of Mexico? What about the tainted ground water from natural gas fracking? How about those thousands of miles of aging gas pipelines all over the country? The answer is that WE do, as a public. There is a NIMBY attitude right now, but give it time. Soon it will be in your back yard. If you think about this country as your back yard, then you should be pissed off already.  Don’t wait till a gas pipeline under your house blows up.

In Europe, the price of gas is about twice what we pay. They drive more efficient cars, and have better public transportation. Of course Europe had trains before the advent of the automobile, but it was a time when the cost of energy was very high. It meant cutting down trees. So naturally the system was designed to be efficient. The Electric trains of today are far more efficient that the steam trains of the past. Travel by rail is inherently efficient, so improvements make it even better.

The problem in this country is that the use of subsidies has become perverted. Subsidies and tax breaks are supposed to be a tool of government to influence. The idea is to be able to influence people and corporations to move in a positive direction. Not to enrich the pockets of the most profitable corporations in the world. The system of government with it’s very influential lobbyists is broken. The influence has been completely the opposite of what is needed. If we could just find a way to get rid of subsidies for dirty energy. To have these companies pay a meaningful amount for their leases, enough for the government agency policing them to pay for itself. To have them clean up and monitor their messes. And the allow the price of energy to rise to it’s true cost. We would then see that renew ables would be the cheap alternative.  They actually have been for a long time.