Not President Kennedy
Jared Polis is comparing himself to President John F. Kennedy.
For readers who are too young to remember, Jared Polis is no John F. Kennedy.
Polis seems to think that anyone who issues a bold commitment like Kennedy’s to put a man on the moon, entitles him to Kennedyesque status.
But Kennedy was so much more than that one pledge, and Polis is seriously selling the man, the myth, the legend, short. But we digress.
Polis claimed during Wednesday’s debate that his goal for all-renewable energy use statewide by 2040 is just like Kennedy’s 1961 pledge to put a man on the moon.
It’s not even close, and a little historical perspective is in order.
The Soviet Union had already launched Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite into space, in 1957, and a year later NASA was created.
Man did walk on the moon in 1969, several years after Kennedy was assassinated.
It was a towering, an astounding achievement in a relatively short period of time, and the cost of the entire endeavor was $25.4 billion.
One would think that making America dependent upon alternative energy would be a lot easier and take a lot less time and money, but one would be mind-blowingly wrong.
The U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in research and development for alternative energy since 1977.
Last year alone, the U.S. spent $40 billion — nearly twice what it cost to put man and the moon, and where are we?
On a global scale, 12 percent of energy came from alternative uses last year.
Considering man has been using solar energy seven centuries before the birth of Christ, we really expected we would be a little further along.
But we’re not.
We’re not saying the day won’t come when Colorado and the world is using 100 percent renewable energy. We just don’t think it’s going to happen in the next 20 years, and it certainly won’t be achieved with a paltry $45 billion in Colorado.