Renewable Energy Crisis Renewed

Oil prices have been on everyone

There has been talk of protecting renewable energy initiatives by putting a floor under the price of oil. While such price support would protect the renewable energy sector the idea has got short thrift in an article in the Washington Post by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren of the Cato Institute. Quite correctly they pointed out that it would be difficult to sell people high priced gasoline during an economic downturn.

Rather that put a floor under oil prices it might be a better idea to set a ceiling on renewable energy. Or at least set a target price for engineers and scientists to aim at. If, or rather when, oil prices start to slide environmentally friendly energy products and technologies, even those based on photovoltaic solar cells, will need to produce energy that is competitively priced in a market where oil costs as little as $30 per barrel. At this price, renewable energy produced on either a large or small scale should still gain traction and may eventually displace fossil fuels as a primary energy source.

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