The Democratic party is currently on the top of American politics. They run both the executive branch with President Obama and the Congress with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). With a recent victory in the campaign for healthcare reform that was hard fought against the Republicans. Democratic politics are now focused domestically on expanding green jobs in renewable energies for all Americans.
Democrats advocate the expansion of wind, solar, biomass, and bio-fuels as the means of rebuilding the American economy and gaining strategic position geopolitically on the international stage. A new green economy of jobs that produce renewable energies makes economic sense and political sense. That is why democratic politics support these measures. Senate democrats voted in 2009 for the Cash for Clunkers program that gave federal tax credit to those who traded in their older less fuel efficient “clunker” for cash that would go to the purchase a newer and more modern full-efficient vehicle or hybrid. The Cash for Clunkers program is an example of how politics can function in a constructive manner to give the people incentive to perform good stewardship of the earth.
The environmental and economic impact of energy efficiencies have taken a toll on the American economy in 2008 when the price of petroleum went up in excess of $4 a gallon during the summer. Democratic and Republican politicians had to change their politics in response to that unnerving sign of hard economic times. Politics aside, the economic double impact of a housing market that went bust and the high price of oil led to the triumph of Democratic politics in 2008 after eight years of Republican policies. Democratic politics changed their platform to focus on rebuilding the economy. Through the Obama green jobs initiatives that were included in the 2009 Recovery Act, environmentally friendly industries project to expand with 41,000 new well paying jobs, mostly in construction. The stimulus package set aside $2.3 billion for 183 green jobs projects in 43 different states. Long term non-construction related employment projects figures up to 17,000 new high quality jobs in the United States.
Democratic politics address the issue of corporate overseas outsourcing, new green jobs are only nurture domestic jobs. Recovery Act moneys will not be dispersed to green jobs industries that only provide the greatest domestic job creation, greatest net impact in avoiding or reducing air pollutants or emissions of greenhouse gases; lowest cost of energy, greatest potential for technological innovation and commercial deployment, and the shortest project time from certification to completion.
Democratic politics’ support of the emergence of a new green economy will help bring America back to a time when it was an exporting country. Through environmentally friendly innovations that result from the government’s nurturing of green energy industries. Government subsidization of key industries have proven effective in creating lucrative business, look what subsidies on corn did to the price and consumption of corn and soy. Politics aside, this type of policy could be used in constructive manner instead of being used in the majority of processed foods that make the American public fat. Subsidizing the green energy industries could make the price of renewable energy more competitive to cheap fossil fuels (that as of 2008, are proving themselves not so cheap). Despite the Democratic party’s adoption of a proactive stance on environmental stewardship through public policy is not enough, politics could be the greatest hindrance to environmental progress as lobbyists of the petroleum industry are much more wealthy and powerful than the lobbyists renewable energy industries. Only time will tell the long term impact and evolution of current environmental policies.