| 26.06.2008 |
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| On Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama praised Germany for the development of its solar power industry and urged the U.S. to follow suit. In a speech outlining his energy policy in Las Vegas he said: "Germany, a country as cloudy as the Pacific Northwest, is now a world leader in the solar power industry and the quarter million new jobs it has created. In less than eight years, before we'd ever see a drop of oil from offshore drilling, they have doubled their renewable energy output. And they did it by using technology that, in some cases, was paid for by the American people through our own Research and Development tax credits. The difference is, their government harnessed that technology by providing the necessary investments and incentives to jumpstart a renewable energy industry. Washington hasn't done that." Obama is correct in stating that Germany over a relatively short time has become the world leader in solar, but also in the wind power industry. (You can find a good analysis of Germany's renewable energy policy here.) He is also correct in his assessment that Germany's renewable energy production has skyrocketed and created jobs - by how much depends on which time frame one takes into consideration. Obama's statement that German companies used technology that was developed using U.S. tax credits is probably also correct, but not all that remarkable in a global business environment. (The MP3 player, for instance, was invented by a German scientist working for a German research instution funded to a large extent by German taxpayers, but cleverly marketed by a company called Apple.) And is also true that the German government provided the necessary investments and incentives to jumpstart the renewable energy sector. What Obama left out, however, was the tool by which the German government collected the money to allocate these investments: the ecological tax or ecotax. The basic premise of the ecotax, which was implemented starting in 1999, is that energy use is taxed. Therefore consumers as well as businesses have an incentive to save energy and use energy efficient products. As part of the ecotax the gas price in Germany increased 3.07 Euro cents (ca. 5 U.S. cents) per year per liter (0.26 gallons) from 1999 to 2003. Obviously, many Germans were not very happy about paying not only more at the pump but also for energy consumption in general. And even today, the ecotax is a divisive topic in Germany, that had to be taken up by country's highest courts. So yes, Germany in a pretty short time established a viable renewable energy sector. But it comes at a price. And someone who brands himself as a new kind of politician like Barack Obama should tell people not just the goal, but also name the price. In his speech on energy policy he didn't. |
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| 3 Comments |
| Why is it that the Republicans think that everything should be free.The way they pay for things is to give tax breaks to the rich and to business so that the middle class {or what is left of it} get stuck paying for all the "free stuff" they give us. Please pardon my lack of interest in their slogans and catch phrases. |
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| DALE Peck | Homepage | E-Mail | 26.06.2008, 23:04 | ||
| He could have possibly done the McCain trick...said he could pay for something from unnecessary pork...McCain's own, that is. |
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| Mac | Homepage | E-Mail | 26.06.2008, 16:28 | ||
| It surprises you that he spoke of lofty goals, but not how he would pay for them? You don't cover liberal Democrats that often do you? |
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| Heather | Homepage | E-Mail | 26.06.2008, 11:35 | ||