We don’t have cable, so I did not watch the State of the Union Address.  I did read the text online. Here are some thoughts on one portion of the speech.

There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.

Well, yes there is.  First, the rare earth metals that are the foundation of “clean energy” technologies are in China.  Also, the United States has a little department called the EPA that would make manufacturing clean energy products here impossibly expensive.  China doesn’t let pollution get in the way of profit.

Solar panels, hybrid car batteries, wind turbines?  The rare earths that power them are strip mined and processed on a factory floor even worse than the ones described in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. An environmental and human cost that the West would never put up with in our country.

It’s great to get better gas mileage, but at what price?

But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies.

Apparently, Obama’s new buzzword is Clean Energy.  By “clean” he apparently means not-profiting-big-oil.  I agree with his call for new, clean nuclear plants.

Here’s the very next sentence in the speech.

And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.

He’s talking about Cap and Trade here.  That is, it’s not about making so-called clean energy more affordable, but making conventional energy generation more expensive so that the current price of clean energy looks like a bargain.  Then, clean energy will turn a profit.  Don’t fool yourself- cap and trade will cost you more money.

“Clean” energy is a misnomer.

Those CFL bulbs, the squiggly ones that use less electricity?  They contain mercury and may contaminate landfills.  They are often imported – shipped across oceans on oil fueled vehicles.

And those wind turbines?  They sound like a wonderful idea.  But they are not benign to the environment either.

There are no easy answers.  And it is irresponsible for our leaders to sling around buzzwords such as “green jobs” and “clean energy” when the reality is not cut and dried.