The Adoption of Renewable Energy Requires Fighting Entrenched Interests

During a talk on the adoption curve for renewable energy with a friend this morning, I mentioned that a huge factor is politics; in particular, any gains in solar and wind come as the result of the tooth-and-nail fights with the enormous powers that are dead-set on stopping them.

Here’s an article written by an assembly woman in Wisconsin on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that is in place specifically to make sure the established industries can maintain their monopolistic positions; in this case, the goal is to impede the progress of renewable energy so that coal, oil and gas can continue to reign supreme.  If you read the article, you’ll learn how: “Legislators from Utah and Oklahoma bragged about slowing the development of solar energy in their states (and how) Oklahoma Senator A.J. Griffin (pictured here) passed a bill to tax individuals using distributed generation from solar panels or wind turbines.”

I wrote a terse note back to the guy who just sent me this piece: “Thanks. That’s nauseating.”