Wow.  We have a lot of work to do to build a public private consensus on transforming our country’s energy system.  The reaction to my Business Week column, Energy Innovation Should Trump Job Creation, speaks volumes about how far we need to go.  There will always be disagreement and countervailing arguments about trade-offs in any transformation but these visceral responses claiming that there is no impending environmental crisis or there is nothing that we can do about it are alarming.

Check out these excerpts from comments posted to my column:

TOM W:  This is an article that completely ignores reality. Mr. Kaplan clearly has no sense of what is happening in the U.S.  This country is on the verge of revolution. People are fed up of with this “Chicken Little” sky is falling nonsense. Every thinking person knows that the so called “climate crisis” is nothing more than a way to tax energy to pay for more government programs and increase government power in domestic affairs.

Jeff M:  There’s much fault that can be found with this article. The statement that “The threat of climate change is real…” infers that manmade climate change is a fact. It is not a fact. The scientific basis for manmade warming is being “hotly” debated, and rightly so. Temperatures haven’t increased in the past decade, yet we still hear the same old climate change mantra and are told that the debate is over…that we MUST act now…to save the children! This simply is not true.

Tom Z:  Open your own eyes and stop being led around by the nose by people with a political agenda to re-distribute wealth. I have another clue for you, CO2 is not a poison or a pollutant and more importantly is not a problem. The Cap & Trade crowd is asking us to fight with one hand tied behind our backs and then wonders why things aren’t getting better.

Jimmy H:  NOTHING we do will change the final outcome. Even if every human on the planet got hydrogen powered cars, planes, buses, houses, appliances and pets, and never ever burned any more fossil fuels, the oceans, permafrost and cattle put out more greenhouse gasses now than humans.  Sorry Saul, but “act now” will not change the outcome.. So go for job creation and don’t worry about Global Warming.

Frank: Let’s not make up stories about the “Global Warming Boogey Man”. There is no such animal. It is a fact that the earth has been cooling steadily since 1998 and we have a much greater chance of entering an ice age than we do suffocating from getting too hot.

I know these are only a few opinions and may not reflect the majority view but my sense is we need to elevate these debates to forge a strong base of public support to have any chance of catalyzing the major energy system changes we need here in the U.S. and globally.  These strongly held views should strengthen our resolve to hit energy policy issues head on.  We will not make meaningful progress on the energy front hiding behind promises of green jobs.  Make energy innovation a higher national priority.