(via Yglesias)There's a new CAP report out on how the US is pretty far behind other developing countries in producing renewable energy. Also, Matt points out that this is pretty piss poor, especially when you look at solar power - Florida, the West and Southwest should be killing countries like Germany in solar power.
Also, this is disheartening - about how China is passing us up too (even as the popular political argument has been "well, we aren't making China meet CO2 caps, why should we put ourselves at a disadvantage" ... well, now they're jumping out to an advantage while we're sitting flat footed!)
A February analysis by HSBC Global Research in Hong Kong projects that nearly 40 percent of China’s proposed $586 billion stimulus plan—$221 billion over two years—is going toward public investment in renewable energy, low-carbon vehicles, high-speed rail, an advanced electric grid, efficiency improvements, and other water-treatment and pollution controls. This stimulus is on top of historic levels of government spending and private investment in renewable technology, energy efficiency, and low-carbon growth all across China. The upshot: China, according to a recent analysis, is “the largest alternative energy producer in the world in terms of installed generating capacity.”
This massive stimulus plan will spend over 3 percent of China’s 2008 gross domestic product annually in 2009 and 2010 on green investments—more than six times America’s green stimulus spending as a percentage of our respective economies. This is about $12.6 million every hour over the next two years. In the United States, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invests $112 billion in comparable green priorities over the next two years, about half as much as China, according to HSBC. This represents less than half of one percent of our 2008 gross domestic product.
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