Florida’s beloved governor, Rick Scott has been running from one end of our state to the other billowing with his very weird affect about all the jobs that have been created in this state under his administration. I don’t believe the numbers…none of them, and I reject the the suggestion the notion that any of Scott’s policies are going to propel Florida into long-term economic stability. I want to see policies that contribute to the development of long-term industries and regions, not jobs at McDonalds.
I’m concerned about all the attention on the alleged job creation in Texas, especially when the analysis shows that much of that growth and job creation comes from oil-related jobs. Regarding Rick Perry and his oil “miracle”., the New York Times recently wrote:
But some economists as well as Perry skeptics suggest that Mr. Perry stumbled into the Texas miracle. They say that the governor has essentially put Texas on autopilot for 11 years, and it was the state’s oil and gas boom “” not his political leadership “” that kept the state afloat. They also doubt that the Texas model, regardless of Mr. Perry’s role in shaping it, could be effectively applied to the nation’s far more complex economic problems.
The whole oil cycle seems wrong to me. We suck up this black gooey mess that’s trapped way, way below the earth. The process is dirty, dangerous and inefficient. Now I recognize that solar and renewable energy is not the end all and be all and it won’t solve all of our energy needs, but it really makes me angry that we are ignoring renewable energy policies in this state while at the same time, our state’s “leaders” are falling for the mantra of the false (oil) prophets (profits).
But there is a better way. Just read from a recent column in the St. Petersburg Times
In the less than Homeric history of Florida’s energy industry, the coming week may deserve special attention.
State regulators in Tallahassee will be busy listening with sympathetic ears to Progress Energy Florida and FPL, Florida’s two largest providers of electricity. The utilities will argue that fast-escalating surcharges they plan to add to their customers’ monthly bills in the coming years are the best option to help prepay the massive and still-rising price tags for new nuclear power plants, which are not expected to come online for many years.
And a little-known firm in Melbourne expects to announce where — in either rural Florida or Georgia or North Carolina — it will choose to build a 4,000-acre, 400-megawatt complex of solar farms.
As indicated in the column, the company (National Solar) referenced in the article is largely untested, but so was Ford and Apple at one point in time. The point is we should be aggressively pursuing new technologies and new industries as the source of our economic development future rather than remaining grounded in our previously failed economic and industrial policies. Just think for a moment about the prospect of large covered parking lots in grocery stores and malls all across this state. Think for a moment about the prospect of our asphalt roofs being replaced with solar panels that pump energy right back into the homes under which they sit.
It’s time to Get to Work! allright, but let’s make sure we’re working for a more sustainable future!
