China Demonstrates The "Sputnik" Moment

Recently, Steven Chu gave a speech about how alternative energy is this generation's "Sputnik" moment. In short, he is referring to the fact that America is getting left behind in the race to be more advanced in our energy generation, and we can either sit back and watch or get up and fight back.

Echoing this point, Ernst & Young just released a report confirming that Asia is widening the gap in their use of alternative energies compared to the rest of the world.  For those keeping score, the rest of the world does in fact include the United States - a point that sometimes people tend to forget.

Because I don't want to do my own financial analysis of the alternative energy markets, I'm going to do what I do best and just copy and reference the work that others have done.  Take it from here Ernst & Young:

...Ernst & Young publishes a quarterly "country attractiveness" index for investors that ranks nations' renewable energy policies, renewable energy markets, and other factors...

...China's record spending on its wind industry this quarter represented nearly half of all funds invested in new wind projects around the world," the report states. "Figures released for the second quarter of 2010 showed that China invested around $10 billion in wind out of a global total of $20.5 billion...

 As I have stated before, money is the driving force behind any of these changes. Clearly China sees this, and other countries are indeed following their lead. It is only a matter of time before the policies in the US begin to open up more allowing for my investment and development, but it is quickly becoming clear that these things need to happen sooner than later for the US to stay competitive.