Republicans Sit Out Policy Meeting On Clean Tech, the Economy and Climate Change
California Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had NYT columnist Tom Friedman and Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr speak with that committee on Wednesday. The two gentlemen warned the Senators that the U.S. risked falling even further behind the world in green technology if Congress failed to act. However, the message was lost on the Republican contingent of the committee which did not attend, as it was not a formal hearing.
Nonetheless, Doerr and Friedman both encouraged the Democrats in attendance to adopt a cap-and-trade system or carbon tax, as the best means of promoting what Friedman regularly calls “ET” (Environmental Technology). READ MORE
America Enters the ‘Trance’ Phase of ‘Shock and Trance’
Tom Friedman presents another in-depth case for a dramatic increase in the national gasoline tax, or an economy-wide carbon tax, in the NY Times on Sunday.
His basic argument is that with falling gas prices, we’re quickly falling back into a sense of trance, which is the second half of America’s standard “shock and trance” cycle that has shaped American energy policy over the past forty years.
Although President-elect Obama has articulated his concern that we avoid this oft-repeated mistake of following petro-panic with petro-complacency, he has been opposed to new gas or carbon taxes. Friedman says that this is a terminal mistake.
Here are the highlights of Friedman’s argument:
Regarding the current situation, he notes:
“Of course, it’s a blessing that people who have been hammered by the economy are getting a break at the pump. But for our long-term health, getting re-addicted to oil and gas guzzlers is one of the dumbest things we could do.” READ MORE
Friedman on ‘making cars the people want’
“Over the years, Detroit bosses kept repeating: ‘We have to make the cars people want.’ That’s why they’re in trouble. Their job is to make the cars people don’t know they want but will buy like crazy when they see them. I would have been happy with my Sony Walkman had Apple not invented the iPod. Now I can’t live without my iPod. I didn’t know I wanted it, but Apple did. Same with my Toyota hybrid.”
Some more thoughts on the proposed Detroit bailout
On the bright side, at least if the Detroit bailout doesn’t lead to viability for the Big Three, their eventual successors are hard at work. Whether the next G.M. is EV infrastructure company Better Place, or some other group of entrepreneurs hard at work somewhere, or maybe Toyota, innovation will ultimately triumph.
But as Tom Friedman notes, “Do not expect this innovation to come out of Detroit. Remember, in 1908, the Ford Model-T got better mileage – 25 miles per gallon – than many Ford, G.M. and Chrysler models made in 2008.” It’s just too bad that the taxpayers have to be on the losing team in this race.
The Obama stimulus package must effect change, not calcify the past
David Brooks touches on a concern also voiced by Tom Friedman recently, that the Obama stimulus package be used to effect positive change, and not just further entrenching our past mistakes.
The context of Brooks’ concern has to do with how our society has become sprawled-out over the past 50 years. In response to this diffusion, in recent years, new civic centers have been springing up in suburbs, creating a “new localism.” (“Restaurants and entertainment zones, mixed-use streetscape malls, suburban theater districts, farmers’ markets and concert halls.”)
In order to “build on today’s emerging patterns” towards civic centers and mixed use neighborhoods, Brooks argues that the infrastructure component of Obama’s stimulus must have two key features: READ MORE
Detroit and America can’t go green without a focus on battery technology
With all the talk of bailing out the Detroit automakers and the need for them to make more efficient vehicles, there has been little attention paid to the actual technology that efficient cars are built upon– batteries.
EV World sums up the problem: “Little if any attention was paid to the fact that America has next to no advanced automotive lithium ion battery production capacity. With the exception of a currently shrinking handful of US-based firms, virtually all advanced nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion (Li-ion) production is done overseas, mainly in China, Japan and Korea.” READ MORE
Obama supports massive public works program, could include $100 billion for green-collar jobs
As Tom Friedman noted on Sunday, the federal government is about to spend billions and billions of dollars trying to save and stimulate the economy– how that money is spent will determine whether we calcify the decrepit status quo, or plant the seeds for transformative change and growth.
In Obama’s weekly address on Saturday, he advocated his support for the largest public works program in more than half a century. READ MORE
Friedman to Obama: efficiency incentives and mandates are not enough– we need a carbon tax
President-elect Obama, in an interview conducted earlier this week and aired Sunday on Meet the Press, indicated that while he supports a transformation in our energy and environmental policies, he wants to accomplish this through incentives, rather than a carbon tax.
Tom Friedman, in effect, responds to that position in his op-ed in Sunday’s NYT.
Laying out the enormous importance of how the billions from bailouts and stimulus packages are spent, Friedman quotes Andy Karsner, a former assistant secretary of energy: “Remember, this money will not be neutral. We are talking about directing an unprecedented volume of cash at our housing, energy, transportation and infrastructure industries. This cash will either fortify the incumbent players and calcify the energy status quo, or it will facilitate the economic transformation we seek. The stimulus will either be white blood cells that will heal us or malignant cells that will continue to sap our strength.” [emphasis added]
Similar to our mantra on this site, Karsner (and Friedman) are basically saying that our country has been operating under an unsustainable status quo for a long time, and the billions and billions of dollars that we are about to spend will either act to cement that untenable situation, or transform it into something healthy and viable. READ MORE
Obama on 60 Minutes: Under normal times, bankruptcy for Detroit automakers would be appropriate, but these are not normal times
There’s been an interesting debate going on about whether the Detroit automakers should be bailed out by the federal government. On the one hand is Tom Friedman who on Meet the Press, argued that if he thought giving the industry $25 billion would get them back on track, he would be supportive. However, due to their past and pervasive failures, he has no faith that this would actually happen. As a result, we should only give them the money if it is in conjunction with a concrete plan that would fundamentally change the way they do business. Otherwise, just handing the old management a blank check would just guarantee that they burn through the money, only to return in a few months to ask for another $25
As an op-ed in the WSJ notes, “Like AIG, [GM] will be back for more, and at the same time it will be telling us that it’s doing a great job under difficult circumstances.”
When Tom Brokaw asked Friedman, “Can Barack Obama, the newly elected Democrat, as president of the United States look Detroit in the eye and say, ‘Drop dead,’” Friedman replied, “I think he can. He may have to.”
However, on the other (and notably bigger) hand, on 60 Minutes on Sunday night, President-elect Obama was asked by Steve Kroft what he thought needed to be done, and Obama had a very interesting take on the situation. He noted that under normal circumstances, restructuring the company under bankruptcy protection might be the right path. But given the current credit crisis “you could see the [finance] spigot [being] completely shut off so that it would not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet. And I think that what we have to do is to recognize that these are extraordinary circumstances. Banks aren’t lending as it is. They’re not even lending to businesses that are doing well, much less businesses that are doing poorly. And in that circumstance, the usual options may not be available.” READ MORE
Tom Friedman on Meet the Press
For whatever reason, MSNBC poorly edited the clip of this segment, thereby missing Friedman’s opening remarks. They were very eloquent and powerful so we’re copying them here: READ MORE
Attn. Pickens and Friedman fans:
Both will be on Meet the Press this Sunday. Pickens will, not surprisingly, be discussing energy policy, and Friedman will be on a panel discussing the economy and the transition to the Obama White House.
Hat-tip: TV Guy
Obama’s wish to bailout Detroit and also impose efficiency regulations may conflict
Will Obama follow up calls to bailout the automakers with strict requirements on emissions and efficiencies, or will their inevitable objections that new regulations will cause job losses, trump his environmental concerns? That is a question that will be key in determining if Obama is going to make transformative, systemic change, or if he is going to continue with business-as-usual.
On the one hand, Obama is a vocal supporter of the proposed government bailout of the Detroit automakers. (Which is now looking less likely to succeed.) He wants Congress to approve up to $50 billion in subsidies designed to prevent the Big Three automakers from having to declare bankruptcy. READ MORE
Tom Friedman on The Daily Show
Continuing our Tom Friedman theme for the day, here is a video of him on The Daily Show last night.
Detroit’s protector, Rep. Dingell, being challenged for his chairmanship
Unsurprisingly, the Detroit Free Press endorsed current House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Rep. John Dingell, over Rep. Henry Waxman, who is challenging Dingell for this powerful committee position. Citing Waxman’s support of stricter CAFE standards as a negative, the Free Press joins the likes of Michigan’s congressional delegation, automaker lobbyists, and even Sean Hannity in blaming allegedly too stringent efficiency laws for Detroit’s problems. (As if these laws prevented them from betting their companies on gas guzzlers regardless?)
As we noted earlier today, Tom Friedman insightfully notes in the NYTimes, it was Congress’s failure to impose efficiency standards that allowed Detroit to get itself into the mess it is in today. Friedman singles Dingell out, noting that no one has done more to help the automakers get themselves into this bind than John Dingell, “who is more responsible for protecting Detroit to death than any single legislator.”
If automakers get a federal bailout there should be some serious strings attached
Friedman has a scathing indictment of the Detroit automakers in his column today.
He asks: Why do we have to subsidize Detroit so that it will innovate? What business are they in other than innovation?
Friedman answers his own question: “instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw way too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers…. The result was an industry that became brain dead.” READ MORE
