Financial crisis and energy crisis: solve both at once?

When climate change became a bigger concern in the last few years, and especially when gasoline prices soared during the summer of 2008, we began to hear more in the news about a willingness to invest in energy solutions so as to avoid high prices and declining availability. Then came the financial crisis. All of a sudden vast amounts of money are unleashed -- $700 billion one week in a congressional bill, $250 billion the next week from the Treasury to major US banks. Makes you wish that kind of money were available to invest in energy solutions!

There is a danger that we will adopt a mentality of "we need to take a break from solving the energy crisis so that we can solve the financial crisis first." Sure, in the immediate future some steps are necessary to make sure the movement of money in our current system does not freeze up. But this approach can go too far: the government might back off regulations to ensure higher efficiency standards, or investing in energy research. Much better to couple the two things together: let's use the economic opportunity created by the need for new sustainable energy systems to promote economic growth.