Dan Lashof's Blog
Apollo Project or New Deal to Solve Global Warming?
June 27, 2007
Posted by Dan Lashof in Solving Global Warming
It is fashionable these days to talk about the need for an Apollo project to develop the technology to solve global warming. Most recently David Sokol, the CEO of the utility MidAmerican Energy, made this argument in a Washington Post op/ed. He was explicit in arguing that a technology moon shot was needed instead of strict limits on global warming pollution. Others, such as representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) have used the Apollo rhetoric to suggest the need for a large scale technology effort, while also supporting carbon caps. And the Apollo Alliance was launched to promote clean energy technologies without taking a position on comprehensive climate legislation.
The Apollo rhetoric drives me crazy. Here's why.
First and most importantly, it suggests that we need to invent new technology before we can address global warming, as NASA did in the 1960s. In fact, our primary task right now is to deploy available energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies fast enough and broadly enough to begin reducing emissions each year, as illustrated in the wedges approach developed at Princeton and recently featured on NPR. NRDC has adapted the wedges approach for the U.S.
Second, solving global warming is a fundamentally different kind of problem than putting a man on the moon. NASA had to get two guys to the moon and home again (which was actually the hard part). The technology to do it was hand built by rocket scientists. Manufacturability was not an issue and unit cost was not a constraint. Solving global warming requires transforming the way billions of people get and use energy. Scalability is everything.
Third, there were no vested interests opposed to going to the moon. Just imagine how long it would have taken to get there if every move NASA made was opposed by powerful companies that had invested trillions of dollars betting on a project to drill to the center of the earth instead.
The reality is that solving global warming is an unprecedented undertaking. But if people need an historical comparison the New Deal and the Marshall Plan are far better analogies. What we need is a comprehensive set of policies that get our economy moving in a new direction. Clean, secure, and affordable energy for everyone. Not a couple of guys hitting golf balls on the moon.
(bookmark or email this entry)
- Dan Lashof
- Director, NRDC Climate Center
- Washington, D.C.
- I am the director of NRDC's climate center. My main focus is solutions to global...
- more→
