May 25, 2005
By Mike Ferner
To the Editor of the Washington Post: It is worth noting that the authors of “The Courage to Develop Clean Energy,” are the CEO of General Electric Corp., and the director of the World Resources Institute, a giant of a non-profit with $38 million in gross receipts last year. They write we must “…revolutionize the way we produce and consume energy,” a goal that requires “…brainpower to develop new technology, a market that makes clean technologies profitable and a strong dose of American will.” That goal is indeed important, but Immelt and Lash left out the single most crucial ingredient. Hint: it is not another feasibility study or more volumes of facts. It is not another truckload of data to convince politicians to do the right thing. It is democracy - democracy that will enable us to govern ourselves and create policies that people want and need; policies that allow us to live in peace with our fellow humans and the Earth.
To explain that bit of heresy, a few examples from “Energy, Jobs and the Economy,” by Grossman and Daneker. In 1952 the Paley Commission reported to President Truman that, “It’s time for aggressive research in the whole field of solar energy - an effort in which the U.S. could make an immense contribution to the welfare of the whole world.” The report concluded that solar could play a greater role in energy production than nuclear, and that an aggressive effort could heat 13 million structures by 1975. In 1972, the American Institute of Architects published “A Nation of Energy-Efficient Buildings by 1990.” It found that using readily-available efficiency measures in existing and new buildings would free up an energy supply greater than oil from Alaska’s North Slope or continental U.S. oil production. In 1974, even the Atomic Energy Commission concluded that by 2000, solar could provide 30% of the nation’s energy needs.
Considering that all of these options would have created more jobs and greater environmental benefits than what we ultimately did, we might ask Messrs. Immelt and Lash “why haven’t we already revolutionized the way we produce and consume energy?” The unmistakable answer is “because we do not govern ourselves in America.”
Yes, right here in this fabled American democracy, corporate officials write our energy policy which becomes our foreign policy. Auto, tire, and paving company officials write our transportation policy. How else can you explain the selling of clean, efficient mass transit systems to GM-controlled dummy corporations for systematic destruction, to be replaced with buses, automobiles and expressways that have killed so many central cities, wetlands and farmlands? Would self-governing people in a democratic nation do this to themselves and their planet? Would decent, compassionate Americans allow such killing and maiming in Iraq if we governed ourselves? I think not. We are more intelligent and humane than that. The problem - fable and hype aside - is that “we the people” don’t call the shots. Until we wrestle with that fact we will repeat the Paley study and the architects’ study endlessly to no avail. Ultimately it’s not about good data and persuasive arguments, it’s about power - who has it and how it’s used.
Surely we must revolutionize how we produce and consume energy, developing energy-efficient buildings, mass transit, and renewables. But deep down we know we must do more. We must figure out why we don’t govern ourselves, what we must do to change, and how to win the power needed to democratically run our government and our economy. A lengthy task? An arduous task? A revolutionary task? Of course it is. But what else will we do?
Mike Ferner
Ferner is a freelance writer in Ohio, writing a book on his trips to Iraq. He works with the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), and has been a citizen energy activist for over 25 years.
