Friedman Calls for an Energy Tech Revolution - Page 2

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While some might look at these problems and say, "we're cooked… let's party," Friedman asked that Americans see the list as an opportunity to get back into the business of solving the world's problems. "We need to make abundant, cheap, clean, renewable, and reliable electrons and molecules," he said.

Green technology has an advantage over natural resources, Friedman said, because as demand for technology rises, its cost declines. Natural resources, on the other hand, follow the opposite curve: their price rises as demand rises.

The flip side

But green technology also has two great disadvantages. The first is that for every green technology, there is a cheaper and dirtier alternative, and that problem will not be fixed until government sends a clear and consistent price signal.

Friedman said that with gas at $1.50 per gallon, you couldn't sell a Prius and at $4 per gallon, you couldn't buy one because they were out of stock. Unless the government imposes the fully burdened cost of oil -- the CO2 emissions and the cost of sending troops abroad to protect oil supplies -- the dirty technology will win.

The second disadvantage is the name. "Green was named by its opponents," Friedman said. "It is girly, sissy, unpatriotic and even vaguely European. But I'm telling you that green is the new red, white and blue. It's capitalistic and nationalistic. It's about national power, economic power, and global respect."

The answer starts with government and is delivered by innovation, Friedman said. During a retreat with GE, he said that GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt said that if the president set the price, there would be a period of complaint followed by rapid adaptation. Friedman said he called up Immelt and said, "basically, you're asking us to be China for a day."

The government will have to intervene in the market to start the green revolution that Friedman advocates, but the actual technology will be delivered by American scientists. "I believe it has to be the United States of America," he said, "or our chance of passing on our standard of living to our children is zero."

In a sense, he said, his message is optimistic. He said that it's cool that the five greatest problems in the world all have the same solution.

But it has to happen now because there's no time for later. "Later was a luxury of previous generations," he said. "You could paint the same landscape or eat the same fruit that you had in your childhood. You could do it later because nature seemed bountiful and all threats to it insignificant. But later will be too late. Whatever you want to save, start saving it now."