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Markey addresses the 2010 PBLN
Washington Summit on Capitol Hill |
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Technology executive Ray DeMeo (left) talking policy and
innovation in Washington with Recombinant Data
Managing Director Aaron Abend (right). |
Old enough to remember the spectre of
Soviet missiles pointed at the United States from nearby Cuba? Maybe just studied it in school? Congressman and House Energy Chair Ed Markey (D-MA) made an analogy between the windblades being made in China, pointed (in his words) at the US economy and those Soviet missiles pointed at US cities. A provocative image, Markey is deeply concerned about the future of the US economy - and worries that incumbent energy industries are blocking emergence of the clean energy economy like the phone companies tried to block the internet.
Ray DeMeo, a PBLN member and veteran tech exec with 20 years of experience bringing US tech companies to Asia, offers a
PBLN response on high-tech news site Xconomy.com today. Ray has a slightly different way of making essentially the same point about the impact of the exploding Chinese clean energy effort. As he writes, he sees the threat lurking within the US - in the political and private sectors - where we cannot get our act together to forge a strategy for our own energy future. No-one knows this better than Markey who authored the energy bill, known as Markey-Waxman, that passed in the US House of Representatives and awaits a vote in slightly different form in the US Senate. Both Markey and DeMeo reflect the urgency of re-inventing the US energy economy and not just a new version of "missile defense." This is the urgency that drives PBLN support for Congressional action to put a price on carbon emissions and our enthusiasm for the entrepreneur-driven, government approved marvel that is the Cape Wind project. The US can either lead in this area or play catch-up with tremendous instability and uncertainty resulting. Our choice. Innovators want to lead. It is now a question of whether President Obama, Congress and the incumbent energy industry will let them.
Diane Hessan, President & CEO - Communispace
1 comment:
Well said.
I think we need to shift this from a conversation about what's right for the environment to a conversation about what's right for the economy. The answer is the same, but the latter is much more likely to get us there.
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