Thomas Friedman – Greening the economy
New York Times columnist and Hot, Flat and Crowded author Tom Friedman spoke at the CORE: club last Friday night on the energy crisis facing the United States, as well as some more post-election commentary.
Just before his first public appearance after the election, he was kind enough to make time for a conversation with Huffington Post Green editor Dave Burdick.
GREENING THE ECONOMY
Dave Burdick: You’ve talked (and written) about greening the bailout. Why aren’t green infrastructure projects widespread in the United States?
Tom Friedman: With oil or coal, no one ever said there had to be a payoff you had to pay it back in five years, but with something green, “What’s the payback? What’s the payback on that Prius?”
Well. What’s the payback on your Hummer?
It can’t be measured in very narrow terms. Our society at this time has all these needs. Needs for innovation, needs for jobs, needs for green technology, and needs for American companies to take the lead in innovation. So government investing in that, it seems to me, has the potential for multiple payoffs.