Don't Let The Door Hit You In The Ass On The Way Out, Ron

[festive1]

But how do we get clean energy without incentives? We won't make the energy companies become public (government run), maybe we shouldn't... But how to get the big energy companies to become cleaner? I'm not in favor of corporate welfare either, but pragmatically speaking how do we get from where we are now to green energy?

Easily. Convert the market to a free market by ending corporatism (handouts to businesses, excessive regulation, allow small business to form without red tape getting in the way). Now you have a market which is totally controlled by the will of the consumer. Get enough consumers to demand cleaner energy, and the demand will be large enough to prompt either a current company to take action (by focusing on cleaner energy in order to gain / keep consumers) or for a new company to form in order to meet the demand.

Either way, the consumers will get what they want, and the more people that get converted to the "green energy" way of life, the more demand there will be. Companies that refuse to go green will rapidly lose consumers, and without government to prop them up, they will face declining profits and eventual bankruptcy if they do not meet with demands.

I think removing regulations would allow a handful of monopolies to form. Welcome the second coming of the 1920's. Not so hot. I don't have a better plan, and the government has issues so I don't think government takeovers would help anything. Not everyone can choose to buy things because they fit their moral/ethical/green standards, they simply can't afford to. It's a tough question, I certainly don't have all the answers, but I don't agree with your suggestion.