America is split – just about down the middle – half on the left and half on the right

 If you told me that every football game this season was going to end in a tie, I would not watch football. I feel the same way about politics; I just can’t watch it anymore. At least with football if you stop watching, the pain goes away. The opposite is true with politics. If you leave them alone they will steal the farm (Oh wait, they have).

We need to take responsibility for our votes. The left blames the right and the right blames the left. In the end it’s the voter who loses.

The almost even division of the country has created this problem; and in a way this is a good thing, because this system does not give either side supreme power and this increases the need for compromise between the two sides. But they all have dug in their heels and will not allow common reasoning to enter the conversation.

So the only thing the left and the right can do is hope that the independent vote will help sway the election their way. So in other words, billions of dollars are spent to sway a small minority.

This is money that in my eyes can be used for better things, but that argument is for another time. What is so disingenuous on the part of both sides is that they never repay their debt by helping an independent candidate get any recognition. Not ever. It boggles my mind.

What does all this have to do with renewable energy and electric vehicles? If you look around you’ll see that the environment hasn’t gotten any better and the cost of fossil fuels hasn’t gone down. History shows that this is a never-ending trend. But the cost of solar and wind and geothermal is going down. According to the World Energy Council (WEC), global demand for natural gas is likely to increase by 44% between 2007 and 2035 due to increasing global population and growing demand. This will increase the cost of that fuel. Count on it.

Bloomberg news reported a couple of days ago on India pushing down the price of solar even further:

India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer, is cutting solar-power costs to a record by forcing project developers into auctions, helping avoid the spiraling renewable-energy subsidies that have hurt Europe.


The lowest bid in India’s latest national auction on Dec. 2 came from Solairedirect SA, France’s second-largest producer, which offered to sell photovoltaic electricity at 7,490 rupees ($147) a megawatt-hour. That’s 38 percent below the average price set in a December 2010 auction and about 30 percent cheaper than the global average for solar projects.

They go on to say:

The auction’s results for $700 million of projects shows the price of solar power in India is closing in on the cost of coal-fired generation faster than expected as photovoltaic equipment costs plunge, said Mohit Anand, senior consultant at Bridge to India Pvt., a New Delhi-based advisory firm.


Solar power may equal the cost of fossil fuel-based electricity sold to commercial businesses as early as 2014 or 2015 if prices continue to fall at the rate seen in India over the past 12 months, Anand said. KPMG LLP predicted in May solar power may be as cheap as coal by 2017. The government said in an August report that solar could reach grid parity by 2019.

Read the story here.

While the country is in gridlock and the media only wants to promote its own agenda, the renewable energy industry could make a difference by promoting alternative energy friendly political candidates. There is a great opportunity to make difference going forward and maybe this two-party system is hurting our chances to further the renewable energy industry in a way that is fair. Is the only way left to introduce new ideas is to introduce a new party?

While Ice caps melt, ground water is dries up, the housing market flounders and economies all over the world are at the mercy of fossil fuel providers, the price of clean, renewable energy continues to go down. There has been no better time to make the change to clean renewable energy, but all the left and the right can do is argue. HELLO! CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?!! George Lopez.