Friedman is back and fighting for solar

Award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been on sabbatical for the last half-year or so, and he has been sorely missed.

After spending years talking about how the 'world is flat,' Friedman began writing about a new powerful force in the global economy ... the environment and clean energy. This has lead some (us, actually) to surmise that his next book might be quite EcoGeeky.

Now he's back, and immediately taking on the idiocy of suspending the gas tax for the summer months:

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

And then he gets to the real meat of the issue. It's not that we don't have an energy policy in America, it's that we have the exact opposite of the policy we should have. We continue to subsidize oil and gas and are letting subsidies for wind and solar lapse.

The neglect of these renewable energy tax credits has been discussed over and over again by us EcoGeeks. Friedman's audience (being somewhat larger than our own) will hopefully finally hear this message loud and clear. I sure am glad he's back.