A simple strategy we can use to support US made solar panels and wind towers etc… is to set up a policy where ALL federal offices and other governmental buildings (with exemptions for historical landmarks) invest part of their energy budget each year on installing sustainable energy sources such as solar (and of course insulation etc…). It may be a minor hit for a few years but it should start paying off in lower energy costs. Please make sure only US made (100%) equipment is used. Bills providing encouragement for states to follow suit would also be good. One of the hardest things for these businesses to achieve is a sufficient market to allow them to lower their prices through economies of scale (buying components in bulk is cheaper). Note, China already follows this basic policy of guaranteeing THEIR solar panel industry with sufficient customers. Unless we do similar it is guaranteed we will end up buying our solar panels from overseas, even though we may innovate significantly better technology, simply because due to their lead in volume of customers, the $/Watt will be cheaper.

I am a great fan of high speed rail. Until we create cost effective (lower energy) alternatives to planes, we will continue to spend massive amounts of fuel inefficiently. High speed rail CAN (if done properly) compete effectively with airlines for time from home to destination. Slow rail not only is too bloody expensive (apparently relying primarily on business from people unwilling to fly) and too expensive to businesses in terms of time their employees are tied up not in the office or at the customer focused destination. High speed rail can also offer alternative for transport of goods as well as people (a lot of planes with their fuel is spent on transporting packages that ‘MUST’ get there by…). Yes it is an investment, but the benefits of faster, cheaper, less hydrocarbons transportation of people and goods is a demonstrated recipe for economic success.