Ethanol from corn is not green!

It's not clean energy. Although it produces no net addition of CO2, it still produces CO2. It is not the solution we're looking for.

The rich people/energy companies don't want to spend capital if returns on investment in green energy are comparatively small when compared ROI for fossil fuels. The green revolution will happen when the fossil fuels become prohibitively expensive, which should happen sometime. Until then, we can't count of the companies to care about anything other than their own interest in money. They don't care about nationalism, the average American, or the environment. And it's these companies that seem to have a very large amount of influence in our political system. Sure, we get out and vote for our candidates, but their major agendas are set by their major donors, and those tend to be business (for both major parties).

Randy, you are absolutely right. If we are not building homes we should be putting solar panels (in sunny regions) on the roofs of homes that are already built, as well as on commercial and industrial rooftops and over the parking lots around shopping centers and sports stadiums. We should not worry about where the solar panels are made. Putting them in place on the most cost effective basis will help us solve the energy crisis - which is really a green house gases and radiation risks problem. We need to get over this whole "foreign vs domestic" issue. We can only compte by competing, not by hiding behind tariffs or slogans. There is nothing wrong with Arab oil and natural gas, but there is plenty wrong with oil and natural gas in general. Of course coal is 25% worse than oil and twice as bad as natural gas in GHG terms. Fractionating hydrocarbon bearing strata, using hazardous chemicals and without much thought about futre geological stability, is almost as stupid as mining uranium. Let's get those roustabouts setting up utility scale wind turbine generators in the great plains from Minnesota and North Dakota to Texas. Over time we can produce more net energy from wind in this region than we can by ripping up the state of Wyoming for the sake of two more generations of coal. Get those offshore drilling crews busy setting up WTGs on 90 meter towers in the North and Middle Atlantic and offshore California, Oregon and Washington. Tax all hydrocarbons at well-head, mine mouth or port of entry based on their GHG content. Start the taxes low with scheduled increases year-by-year. Renew the wind production tax credit and, in the alternative, offer a 30% or more investment tax credit on any non-hydrocarbon renewable energy investment. Offer the 30% tax credit for transmission lines from these new energy sources to locations of energy demand. Make the tax credit 60% for investment in underground transmission lines. Offer a 30% tax credit on purchases of electric-only (not hybrid) automobiles and delivery vehicles and on investments in infrastruture to recharge those vehicles. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We don't need to build nuclear power plants ($8.6 billion loan guarantees for proposed NPP in Georgia, all NNPs are reinsured for liability to a limit of only $16 billion or so, there is no permanent storage plan for the NPP nuclear fuel waste material created in the U.S.) just to keep the lights on and create some construction jobs in Georgia! After all, they have sunshine down there. Build solar!