GreenEnergyForEarth.com – Alternative Energy News and Green Products

Nov 5, 2008 – During the 2008 election campaign, Obama specifically promised the USA would spend $15 billion a year for the next 10 years.  Alternative power projects are likely to pass with a Democratic president and a Democratic-controlled Congress.  Obama supports subsidies for both solar and wind power.  The tax credit legislation is already law signed by President Bush.  He is less supportive of nuclear energy and offshore drilling, but not outright against them.  How is a windfall tax on oil companies that Obama has proposed going to affect their ability to invest in renewable energy?  Oil companies involved with green energy?  Yes, see recent ads from BP, ExxonMobil, etc.  Sometimes, we don’t realize that the minor activities of some major companies are larger than the sole efforts of some specialized companies.  For example, GE reports $14 billion of renewable energy revenue and Siemens AG reports $17 billion of such revenue.  How can we ensure the accelerating growth of renewable energy use in the US?  There are factors, intended and unintended, that will develop as we go forward that government cannot predict or legislate.  Several ethanol producers’ and their stocks have tanked.  Some are in bankruptcy [notably VeraSun Energy] and others are on the verge of filing for bankruptcy.  How did this happen?  Corn prices went up squeezing profits, ethanol producers hedged to lock in prices before they went higher, corn prices went down leaving the producers paying the hedged prices, credit dried up new capacity under construction, and oil prices came down quickly leaving ethanol less competitive.  Just as the well-funded real estate investors are buying up foreclosed properties, large ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland [NYSE: ADM] are going to be buying up facilities on the cheap.

Watch for Obama to propose a comprehensive green energy initiative including solar, wind, hybrid cars, electric cars and other renewables other than alcohol.  There has been talk of another stimulus package that will be directed at federal spending on infrastructure rather than housing and banking.  The rationale is that the green energy initiative will produce jobs in America.  It is too expensive to transport a huge wind turbine from Europe or Asia compared to building it where previously SUVs were being built.

Stay tuned at GreenEnergyForEarth.com for continuing information and analysis as we wait for announcements of president-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet appointments for Secretaries of Energy, Agriculture & Treasurer.

Solar panels photo courtesy & © SCHOTT

Wind turbines photo courtesy & © US Dept of Energy