Remember when the US led the world in innovation? The cotton gin, putting people on the moon, the internets, etc. We used to invent stuff and then sell it to other countries, and it made our country wealthy and the dollar strong. But not so much anymore.

For whatever reason (and we're sure you can come up with a few), the US has lost dropped the ball on alternative energy solutions in the face of climate change. Earlier in the year the administration withdrew its financial support of a 'clean coal' and carbon capture and sequestration plant, and hasn't done much to address the issue since, in spite of the fact that the nation's leading climate scientist James Hansen has called for a moritorium on new coal power plants unless they come equipted with CCS.

Sensing a lucrative opportunity to bring the market something it needs, the Japanese government is working with its private sector to successfully implement its CCS goal. Not to be outdone, the British government has a competition to inspire its own private sector to come up with a successful CCS method, and has promised hundreds of millions of pounds to help implement the winning idea.

Now would probably be a good time to write your Senator and ask them to make sure the Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extension gets passed when they return from their recess next week, so that domestic RE businesses have some incentive to keep working.