Profiting from Global Climate Change

I've been thinking about climate change lately and have come to an interesting conclusion. We are thinking about this all wrong. It really doesn't matter one way or the other if man made global warming is happening or not (for the record it is). No, what really matters is the unbelievable market opportunity that climate change presents to our nation.

One of the best ways to cut down on CO2 emissions is run zero emission cars and trucks. Now, these can be electric, fuel cell or any number of other technologies that are in the pipeline. It really doesn't matter how you get there as long as the vehicle (and the process for fueling the vehicle) it pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. The beauty of this fact is that the technologies to manufacture zero emission vehicles are already in existence. This is not about finding something that can work, we have things that can work already.

The problem is that these vehicles cannot compete in the marketplace with traditional gasoline powered cars and trucks. Traditional vehicles are well known, cheap to produce, reliable and the fuel for them is readily available at a reasonable price. Add to that the fact that gasoline production is heavily subsidized by the government and alternative fuel vehicles don't stand a chance in the marketplace.

Hence the opportunity, you see the rest of the world is more than ready to embrace alternative fuels. Heck, Brazil is almost 100% sugar based ethanol already. What they need is someone able to sell them these vehicles at a reasonable price. That is where the opportunity comes into the picture.

The US government could very easily subsidize the production of alternative fuel vehicles to bring prices down to a reasonable level. They could also bump up the tax credit so these vehicles are actually cheaper to buy than traditional cars and trucks. Finally, they could launch a building program to ensure that fuel could be found (at least along US highways) for these new vehicles. This will cost quite a bit of money, but look at the longterm payoff.

Once the automakers have ramped up to build these new vehicles the cost of manufacture will come down in a hurry. Once that happens the subsidizes can shrink and they will be cheap enough to export to Europe, China, India and anywhere else with a burgeoning middle class. Best of all, we will own the technologies that will replace internal combustion for the foreseeable future.

More jobs, a better balance of trade and a massive cut in the emissions that cause global warming. Seems like a win-win to me, but then what do I know? I actually believe virtually every climate scientist in the world over the objections of George Bush and Dick Cheney.