Secretary of Energy nominee Rick Perry was right when he said that climate change was a danger, but we had to combat it in a way that does not hurt our economy. Fortunately, now that solar and wind energy have become so cheap, now we can both control climate change and help our economy at the same time.
Most economists now agree that combating climate change benefits the U.S. economically. China already leads the world in clean energy production, and it just announced a plan to spend $361 billion on clean energy by 2020. It says it would add 13 million new jobs to their economy. The country that leads the world into the Green Energy future will lead the world economically. That must by the U.S., not China!
America must now reclaim its place as the premier producer of clean energy in the world. For every dollar spent on clean energy production, two to three times as many jobs are produced as would be produced from the same dollar spent on fossil fuel energy production.
George Shultz,a fiscal conservative and former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, advocates for a carbon fee and dividend plan that places a fair price on the production of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels to account for their external cost and returns that money to all U.S. citizens. This plan both markedly lowers greenhouse gas emissions by 52 percent and adds 2.8 million new American jobs, increases the GDP by $1.375 trillion and adds extra real spendable income to most Americans over its 20-year life span.
We are America, and we can do this! Yes, let us make America even greater by growing our economy and at the same time ensuring that future generations have a livable world to inhabit.