Photo Source:  Wayne National Forest

The Nation’s Christian Parenti, wrote a very interesting article last week titled, “The Big Green Buy“.  In the article, Christian argues that since Congress failed to pass a climate bill after the one of the largest environmental disasters in history, then other branches of the government need to act.  His route, have President Obama issue a mandate that government agencies buy green power and technology.  Used effectively, our government’s massive spending power could create a market for green energy.

“Consider this: altogether federal, state and local government constitute more than 38 percent of our GDP. Allow that to sink in for a moment. The federal government will spend $3.6 trillion this year. In more concrete terms, Uncle Sam owns or leases more than 430,000 buildings (mostly large office buildings) and 650,000 vehicles. The federal government is the world’s largest consumer of energy and vehicles, and the nation’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. Add state and local government activity, and all those numbers grow by about a third again.

A redirection of government purchasing would create massive markets for clean power, electric vehicles and efficient buildings, as well as for more sustainably produced furniture, paper, cleaning supplies, uniforms, food and services. If government bought green, it would drive down marketplace prices sufficiently that the momentum toward green tech would become self-reinforcing and spread to the private sector.”

Check it out.  It’s and interesting read.