Jesse paints a picture..

Jesse Jenkins is an energy and climate policy analyst, activist and blogger located in the USA, working with the Breakthough Institute and he writes his own blog WattHead.

This morning I was contemplating why we in Australia are so obsessed with our proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, and Jesse effectively sums up my concerns and directions, so below are few quotes taken randomly from his recent posts:

Jesse Jenkins: "Yes, we need new regulations and a price on carbon. But consider this: the United States did not invent the Internet by implementing a cap and trade system on fax machines. We didn't invent microchips by taxing the slide rule, nor did we create the personal computer by regulating typewriters. Rather, your computer, your cell phone, your iPod -- all of these revolutionary and now ubiquitous technologies were originally invented by direct federal investments supporting the relentless innovation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs just like yourself."

"The ultimate effectiveness of a strategy premised centrally on an effort to make dirty energy more expensive will always be limited by this fundamental reality of the political economy of energy -- which we at the Breakthrough Institute have dubbed 'Global Warming's Gordian Knot.' If the price of carbon must rise too high to drive emissions reductions, various cost containment mechanisms or public backlash will kick in -- either of which effectively abrogates the emissions cap. Yet if we constrain the price of carbon, it will have very little impact on emissions absent a steady supply of low-cost emissions
reductions opportunities."

"President Obama and Speaker Pelosi have it right: a "New Apollo Project" for clean energy -- at least $150 billion in direct public investment over ten years, funded by modest carbon pricing or deficit spending -- is far more robust than pollution regulation. Whereas a debate about carbon regulation emphasizes economic costs and increased energy prices, a debate about clean energy investment puts the enormous public benefits at the front and center: creating millions of jobs, promoting U.S. growth industries and competitiveness, developing new energy technologies, and securing the nation's energy independence."

pic of Jesse Jenkins from the ABOUT page of BreakThrough Institute