RENEWABLOG

Al Gore Challenges US to Green Moon Mission

In a NY Times Op Ed on Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore outlined a five-step plan for the US to get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable resources. Some interesting points in the piece:

1) He calls for the government to support Detroit (and start-ups like Tesla) in building plug-in hybrids that can feed off of the renewable energy grid he describes.

2) He discounts the validity or at least the current state of "clean coal" technology. Is he right? Who knows? If they are going to try and make clean coal a reality, they need strict regulation around mine safety and ecologically friendly means of mining it.

3) He alludes to a cap-and-trade system for carbon and discusses greater US involvement in being an international leader in carbon regulation. It will be interesting to see if Obama and the Congress tackle carbon legislation in 2009.

It seems in addition to the ambitious plan for government involvement, Gore thinks that Web 2.0 could have a role in green policy movement.

Gore's opinion piece will stimulate a lot of debate and continue the pressure on the incoming Obama administration and Congress to push renewable energy regulation and investment to recharge the economy. It will also drive lots of discussion from green blogs this week.

This is a good thing for cleantech and green companies.