These naysayers are wrong. Instead of being a drag on our economy, clearn energy investment represents the best investment of the day. So says Al Gore in a speech today. He suggests that we make a goal that within 10 years all our electricity would be produced by CO2-free fuel sources.
Nobody has suggested this before. Most pundits think that this is over the top, that it is an unrealistic goal. But if John F. Kenney gave us 10 years to get to the moon, all we need is 10 years to get to CO2-free production of electricity. Gore states that goals for longer periods of time are worthless:
A political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that's meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit the target.
In addition, if it takes 40 years to reach our goal, the goal may come too late to do us any good. Joe Romm, an expert in this area, has written a book titled "Hell and High Water," "Hell and High Water" is a climate-change stage that is as miserable as the name implies that may occur between 2025 and 2050.
Gore's main argument, however, is that investing in clean fuels is a better investment than investing in coal or oil:
The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan group that Gore chairs, estimates the cost of transforming the nation to so-called clean electricity sources at $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion over 30 years in public and private money.
But he said it would cost about as much to build coal plants to satisfy current demand. "This is an investment that will pay itself back many times over," Gore said. "It's an expensive investment but not compared to the rising cost of continuing to invest in fossil fuels."
We can do it because we must if we want our children to live on a decent Earth. We can do it because it is the best investment today. We can do it because Americans can do most anything if they set their minds to it.
