May 3, 2017
Dear Mr. President,
You (and by extension WE, the American people) are really
missing the boat when it comes to solar power.
Right now China effectively controls the world solar market because 2/3
of the world's solar panels are manufactured there AND they are the world's biggest
consumer of solar energy. What China
realized years ago is that solar energy is good for the economy because it
provides jobs (both manufacturing and installation), it's good for security because
it lessens their dependency on oil imports from foreign nations, and it's
REALLY good for the environment, which keeps their people healthy and happy
(China's air pollution is famously terrible).
This is a win-win-win proposal that we are completely missing out
on. What the hell, man? Are you steering this ship or what?
Let's talk about the BIG picture for a minute here because
you tend to get focused on short sighted (often ego-driven) policies and then miss
global trends. Trends that we should be
a part of, like solar panel production and solar energy consumption. The cost of solar panels has dropped almost
90% in the past 10 years in part because the Chinese government subsidized the
building of huge solar panel factories years ago. And now it is paying off for them, and kind
of for us too because we are buying them.
This is a shame because we could be making them here and really boosting
our economy. The US was originally a pioneer in the solar
field and still holds lots of patents, but without the government support that
the Chinese have, the field is faltering here. We are no longer innovating, and we are just
barely producing (dozens of manufacturing plants have closed in the last few
years). Luckily, we are doing well with
installation. In 2016 260,000 people
were employed by solar in the US, mostly in the field of installation, and
slightly more than 1 million homes in the US have solar panels on them. This industry provides good paying jobs AND
saves consumers money. How is this not
at the top of your agenda?? The other
cool thing is that right now solar represents only 1% of the world's total
energy production which means that it is a young and growing industry. There is
SO much potential here.
China has a total energy budget of about $360 billion. They have allocated $145 billion of that (40%)
just to solar. You, however, just withdrew us from Obama's
clean energy plan with your March 28 executive order. You said you were removing "job killing
regulations" so that coal could flourish again. Well pick up a science textbook Mr. Trump,
coal is dangerous, expensive, and running out.
The sun, luckily, is not (and nobody owns it). Your executive order will
provide a few hundred jobs for a few years, but coal is not sustainable in the
long run. And the only way to have
"clean coal" which you have been talking about quite a bit lately, is
to build NEW clean burning factories which nobody has the money or inclination to
do.
Wake up and smell the sunshine Mr. President. You are heading down the wrong path and
dragging the entire country with you.
Sincerely,
Amy Beaton
P.S. Last week the Kentucky Coal Museum in Benham, Kentucky
installed solar panels on it's roof to save on energy costs. I kid you not, I could not make this sh*t up.
P.P.S. China also
dominates in production and consumption of wind energy. Wind turbine production factories = jobs,
job, jobs.
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