Around the globe, policy makers
seeking to meet the world's surging
energy demand with a low-carbon,
baseload power supply are taking a
new look at nuclear energy. After nearly
20 years, there is once again great
interest in the power of the atom.
Across america, companies are finding innovative ways
to turn green technology ideas into greenbacks. Some
rely on new and mind-blowing technologies, others on sheer
common sense.
With dozens of magazine covers and news
features, television shows, books, products,
feature films, and even a Nobel
Peace Prize, climate change was undoubtedly
the topic of the moment in 2007.
In a world that is so profoundly based on affordable
access to energy, where financial markets, energy
markets, and communications are so closely linked,
each action and movement in the global energy economy
comes with an equal and opposite reaction and cost.
At the imaginary intersection of Climate
Boulevard and Energy Security Avenue is the Center
for Green Transportation Opportunities, a place where
the needs of our country and our planet intersect
and money can be made.
Consider for a moment that Americans spend
90% of their time indoors. The built world surrounds
us. It covers the landscape and gets bigger every day:
Schools, homes, and office towers are totems to our
civilization. To know this is to understand the enormous
implications of the shift toward environmentally
sustainable construction.
Climate--both natural and commercial--means
everything when it comes to the growth of investment
in low-carbon energy technologies over the last few
years.
It's getting to be a "green" world, with regulatory
compliance and environmental performance driving
change in many fields. This is especially evident in
the world of commercial trucks, where diverse strategies
are being employed to meet the challenge of
operating efficiently and profitably in this new world.
Jigar Shah, CEO of Sun Edison LLC, represents
the kind of entrepreneurial innovation that will hasten our
transition to an energy future beyond fossil fuels. Behind
Shah: solar panels, manufactured by BP, that SunEdison
has installed at Whole Foods Market Inc., an organic
and natural supermarket, in Edgewater, N.J.
Trucks are the workhorses of our economy. They move goods cross-country or across town, transport personnel during the workday, and bring packages to our doors. Their ubiquitous presence at such diverse locations as construction sites, major ports, and loading docks at retail stores and supermarkets is a reminder that they are inextricably tied to our daily lives. Their effect, both environmentally and economically, is profound.
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