[Terrapreta] subsidies

[lou gold]

This is pretty interesting from the CEO of the world's second largest
corporation.

Of course, we need to know if TP works before giving its application a
massive subsidy but I think a massive subsidy for the R&D to find out if it
works is highly appropriate. What's wrong with cap and trade funds for R&D?
Would anyone here be opposed?


    *Eco:nomics: Immelt vs. the Ideologues*
    By David Roberts
    Grist

    Thursday 13 March 2008

*General Electric CEO explains practical realities to free marketeers.*

    The Wall Street Journal's Eco:nomics
<http://economics.wsj.com/>conference is taking place at the Bacara
Resort <http://bacararesort.com/>, a gorgeous old Spanish-style complex
perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Just outside, the cherry-red sun
is setting as a warm breeze blows and waves quietly lap at the sand. Inside,
however, things have gotten a little stormy.

    "I came because I was invited," says the man on stage heatedly, squaring
off his shoulders to the packed crowd. "I don't need to be lectured by
anybody in this room about how to compete!"

    From another speaker it might sound defensive, but in this case it is
the CEO of GE, the second largest company in the world. Jeff Immelt knows
whereof he speaks.

    Immelt's outburst came toward the end of a Q&A session that saw him
repeatedly assailed by ideological conservatives angry over his involvement
in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership <http://www.us-cap.org/>, a coalition
of large businesses lobbying for a carbon cap-and-trade system, and his
leadership role in pushing the business world to embrace clean energy and
sustainability.

    First it was Kimberly Strassel, conference co-host and member of WSJ's
notoriously hard-right editorial board. He answered her patiently,
explaining that it's better for businesses to get out in front of what's
coming than wait on the sidelines. Then it was Fred Smith Jr., president of
the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who lamented the capitulation of
business leaders before the onslaught of Big Government. Immelt smiled
tightly, paused, and said, "it's a great country - we can disagree about
this."

    What put him over the top was Terry Anderson of the Property and
Environment Research Center, a right-wing think tank. Anderson asked what
real entrepreneurs - the ones who don't have the resources to lobby for
favorable treatment from government - are supposed to do when a carbon cap
cripples the economy.

    Real entrepreneurs. That set Immelt off. "We compete our asses off," he
snapped. "We're No. 1 at what we do!"

    At points, Immelt seemed keen to let his antagonists know that he was
one of them. "We read all the same books!" he said plaintively to Strassel.
"I'm not an environmentalist," he insisted later. At the end of one
exchange, he protested, "I've never voted for a Democrat!" adding with a
mutter, "until tonight, maybe ..."

    Conservative in good standing he may be, but Immelt has practical
considerations to attend to. The day after this law is passed, he said, "you
can write about something else. But I've got to go to work that day." He
returned to several points repeatedly:

   - The ideologues "worship false idols." There are no completely free
   markets. The government has its hand in every industry: Housing has mortgage
   tax credits; GE got into commercial aviation because the DOD helped fund it;
   in healthcare there's Medicare and Medicaid and the NIH, researching and
   funding new drugs. Only in energy, for some reason, "we've decided that the
   only regulation will be the price of a barrel of oil. That's crazy!"

   - Businesses always forecast doom, but regulations can often work to
   spur competition. The SOX trading program worked. OSHA 1910 worked. CAFE
   standards worked. The production tax credits work. About the PTC, Strassel
   asked, "how many wind turbines would you have sold this year without
   government subsidies?" Immelt: "The same number. Just outside the U.S."


   - Rising energy costs are not some theoretical worry; they're
   happening. Costs are rising. Better to get out ahead and take control than
   wait for it to be thrust on you. By the time a law is written, it will be
   five years too late.

   - If business doesn't take a seat at the table, regs will be
   determined by politicians and activists (some of which, he said with evident
   horror, want to do away with coal entirely!). USCAP may not be perfect, but
   it replaced a vacuum.

    Interestingly, criticism from the right came only from pundits and think
tankers. Every CEO that addressed Immelt was supportive. Duke Energy CEO Jim
Rogers shared an old saying: "The pioneers get the arrows and the settlers
get the land."

    Patricia Woertz of ADM talked about how mission-driven business can
attract great employees. H. Lee Scott Jr. of Wal-Mart talked about how odd
it is that conservatives oppose programs that are, in effect, reducing
waste.

    Ultimately, Immelt's most powerful argument came in the form of a simple
question. At the end of another defense of carbon caps, he paused for a
moment and then asked, "What's your favorite part of our current energy
policy?"

    Silence.

    "Make a list!"

    More silence.

    Then scattered laughter. Then waves of laughter. And finally, applause.
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