Some US capitalist commentators close to panic.

No ruling class is completely united. There are divisions. In the US the energy, nuclear, oil, gas and auto industry are mostly united on the big issues. This block is very powerful. They want to keep their profits going and their power intact and to do so they keep using the polluting fuels and machines.

Back in the Carter days he installed solar panels in the White House roof. He said;"A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil." Reagan had the panels taken down.

The section of US capitalism represented by these sectors, oil and gas, energy, nuclear and auto triumphed. Where is the US at now? Fighting wars in the Middle East and killing its young people and the people of the Middle East to try and secure its oil sources, deepening its international isolation as hatred of its plundering and killing abroad increases, increasing its debt as it funds these wars and preparing the ground for the radicalization of its youth in the military and in general in the period ahead. Some sections are so addicted by their desire for profits that they are totally blind.

But there is another aspect to this. The US is getting its back side kicked by its rivals. The headline of an article in the New York Times February 13th, 2010 is headed "Watching China Run." It is referring to China racing ahead of the US in developing clean energy. The article says: "They are blowing us away in the race to the future." It goes on: "China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the US last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines and is poised to expand even further this year. China is also the world's largest manufacturers of solar panels. The west may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Middle East for a reliance on wind turbines, solar panels and other gear manufactured in China."

Bob Herbert the author of this article in the New York Times ended by saying: "What's at stake is the future of the American economy. The low carbon era is coming.We can be dragged into that newer greener world by leading countries like China; or we can take up that challenge and become the world's leader ourselves." When he writes this Herbert is not drawing the conclusion that is staring him in the face.

To achieve the latter and lead the world the forces who got Reagan to take the solar panels of the White House and who make a fortune out of foreign oil and polluting energy sources have to be defanged. However they are still alive and well and calling the shots. Otherwise we would not be occupying and fighting in Iraq, and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. A great political struggle lies ahead if the crisis of pollution and the environment and sustainable clean energy is to be resolved. The Democrats or Republicans will not lead this. They are agents of the very forces that are the cause of the problem, the polluting profit addicted industries. A new mass movement and the building of an American working peoples party is needed.

Sean.