I never heard of the man until he died, Hermann Scheer.
He was one of the people responsible for all the solar panels on homes in Germany. Completely organized, paid for and creating more energy that the country did ten years ago without going in debt on a national scale. Scheer help organize world wide education on the subject of energy and did his last interview with Amy Goodman days before his death. It is worth reading because he highlights the problems that the United States has with progressing into the future on this front.
Scheer understand American politics probably better than most of us. He points out that three presidents have tried to change our energy focus but have been stopped, Carter, Clinton and Obama. On the federal level, the oil companies along with coal and nuclear corporations stop it. They are the ones that say they are researching the future available options, fund the research and then delay the progress for their own greed.
The only way this country can move toward energy efficiency is for states and large cities to act independently and start their own programs. It will always be blocked on the national level. Teddy Roosevelt was the last president that have the power to break up a corporation when he broke up Standard Oil. Obama is not working with a majority (southern Democratic are the same of GOP) and in Washington money rules. If we all understand that 36,000 lobbyists (up from 350 at the start of Reagan years) write the laws and finance our elections we grasp the nature of politics.
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