I Try Not To Get An Ulcer But...

Thomas Friedman has it right on energy again. (Much as he's wrong on other things.) It's crp like this that has stunted the renewables industry in the USA for decades. It's one reason I'm not in the game on the manufacturing level for which my industrial engineering degree was intended.

Dumb As We Wanna Be - New York Times - 30 Apr 08

"Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up."

"The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years."

I Try Not To Get An Ulcer But...

Thomas Friedman has it right on energy again. (Much as he's wrong on other things.) It's crp like this that has stunted the renewables industry in the USA for decades. It's one reason I'm not in the game on the manufacturing level for which my industrial engineering degree was intended.

Dumb As We Wanna Be - New York Times - 30 Apr 08

"Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up."

"The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years."