• Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Links
    • Drilling and Fracking
    • Resources
    • Stuff I Like
    • TX Progressive Alliance
  • Must See Videos
  • PSYOPS
  • Shale Survival
    • Before drilling starts
    • Tools
    • Medical
  • FAQ
  • Contact Me

Texas Sharon's Bluedaze

Fracking News

Germany passes US in renewable energy and democracy

November 23, 2012 By TXsharon

Germany listened to Jimmy Carter and it turns out he was right and Ronald Reagan was wrong.

Solar panels cover the rooftops of a German farming village. (InsideClimate News/Osha Gray Davidson)

 

Twenty-five percent of Germany’s energy comes from renewable energy sources and by 2050 100% of their energy will come from renewables.

Published on Thursday, November 15, 2012 by TruthDig.com
How Germany Is Getting to 100 Percent Renewable Energy
by Thomas Hedges

Germans are baffled that the United States has not taken the same path. Not only is the U.S. the wealthiest nation in the world, but it’s also credited with jump-starting Germany’s green movement 40 years ago.

“This is a very American idea,” Arne Jungjohann, a director at the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation (HBSF), said at a press conference Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. “We got this from Jimmy Carter.”

In Texas the oil & gas industry can obtain a permit in seven days to drill for dirty fossil fuels. For solar panels, the “permitting process” takes six months.

Germany adopted and continued Carter’s push for energy conservation while the U.S. abandoned further efforts. The death of an American Energiewende solidified when President Ronald Reagan ripped down the solar panels atop the White House that Carter had installed.

Germany’s program is controlled by the ratepayers not the government so “funding is not at the whim of politicians,” who in the U.S. are so heavily influenced by industry they ignore the citizens.

The press conference the foundation organized with InsideClimate News comes two weeks after one of the biggest storms in U.S. history and sits in the shadow of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would unlock the world’s second-largest oil reserve in Canada. The event also comes one day after a report that says that the U.S. is on track to become the leading oil and gas producer by 2020, which suggests that the U.S. has the capability to match Germany’s green movement, but is instead using its resources to deepen its dependency on fossil fuels.

In the U.S., everything is set up to favor industry and utility companies. It’s just the opposite in Germany.

The largest difference, panelists said, between Germany and the U.S. is how reactive the government is to its citizens. Democracy in Germany has meant keeping and strengthening regulatory agencies while forming policies that put public ownership ahead of private ownership.

“In the end,” says Davidson, who spent a month in Germany studying the Energiewende, “it isn’t about making money. It’s about quality of life.”

Americans could have the same if corporations were no longer considered people and if we get campaign finance reform. That’s the only way it will happen.

UPDATE: Please spread the truth! FACTs about clean energy. Spread the word.

 

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

  • Mail
  • |
  • Web
  • |
  • More Posts(5116)

Filed Under: Alternative energy

Comments

  1. Ceal Smith says

    November 23, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    We posted this last week and I’m glad to see it making its way around! The anti-fracking movement must include a local clean energy policy component — demands for equitable feed-in tariffs and other programs that move us away from dangerous fossil fuels and monopoly energy control. The Renewable Communities Alliance has been working to educate the public about energy democracy issues for several years including the grassroots fractivist community in Colorado. Climate/clean energy + fractivists UNITE! You can follow us at: http://www.renewablecommunities.org/ or email me at: ceal@theriver.com

    • TXsharon says

      November 23, 2012 at 1:59 pm

      Thank you for your important work.

  2. Jana says

    November 23, 2012 at 8:24 pm

    On a positive note, Habitat for Humanity, a cause dear to Jimmy Carter’s heart is adding solar panels for the current build in Sanger, TX. And yes, we have a long way to go and a hard time getting there as long as O & G can buy and manipulate our government(most of them) into subsidizing, rubber stamping, tax cutting, and ignoring the environmental damage of their industry.

    • TXsharon says

      November 24, 2012 at 10:24 am

      Good for Habitat for Humanity!

  3. GhostBlogger says

    November 23, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    The Louisiana region is at a lower latitude than Germany, so it will have stronger sunlight.

    Katrina-Ravaged Neighborhood Reemerges as ‘Largest Solar Housing Development in Southeast’

    The former St. Thomas Housing Projects are reborn into a square mile of solar-powered homes.

    http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/11/10/katrina-ravaged-neighborhood-reemerges-largest-solar-development-us

    • TXsharon says

      November 24, 2012 at 10:24 am

      All of our roofs should look like that.

Stalk TXsharon

Recent Posts

  • Register for the worldwide premier of Uncovering the Permian Climate Bomb
  • Update: Chris Faulkner > IT Guy > Frack Master > Felon
  • French Energy Giant Total Declares War on Texas Toddlers
  • Hydrocarbon odors during oil and gas drilling
  • MSNBC and TXsharon in the Texas fracking zone
  • Blowout: Inside America’s Energy Gamble

Like Earthworks on Facebook

Categories

Archives

All work © Sharon Wilson. No works may be shared copied in full without permission. Bluedaze: Drilling Reform. Site Design by Sumy Designs. Powered by those who advocate for a safe and healthy environment.