To the editor:

It’s clear: China is moving ahead of the United States in regard to renewable energy. Inexplicably and tragically, the United States is content to drop behind in the development of cleaner energy technology.

While China is researching, developing, manufacturing, exporting and moving rapidly toward dominating 21st century energy, over here we seem to be content arguing and pointing fingers at each other instead of collaborating and working together and adopting the new systems, policies and practices the world is in need of and in fact moving to.

American inventors stand head and shoulders above the rest of the world when it comes to inventing new systems and technologies but greed stands in the way of progress because no one in America wants to get involved with carrying the innovations forward to demonstration and commercialization without getting paid upfront (either above or below the table) for doing the right thing.

As Winston Churchill observed, “America will always do the right thing, after it has exhausted all other options.” But can anyone see this changing anytime soon, for any reason? Least of all because it’s “the right thing to do?” All the promise of renewable energy — jobs, national security, addressing concerns about peak oil and the climate issue, not to mention improving our economy in order to support the education we want for our children — seems to motivate only more gridlock and inaction on our part.

Les Blevins,

Lawrence