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A week ago, Paul Krugman published an op-ed piece which pretty much sums up the relationship between sustainability and the US economy. In a nutshell, he explains why the objections being pushed by the US Chamber of Commerce, the Club for Growth, the American Enterprise Institute and similar organizations are entirely bogus, and why some sort of climate-based environmental regulation is precisely what we need to create economic growth. (It stimulates replacement of capital infrastructure even in situations of production over-capacity.)
At present, environmentally friendly energy is expensive because we don't have an awful lot of experience producing it. (Here's a quick explanation from Wikipedia.) We don't have a lot of experience, because in the past we haven't needed to. We haven't needed to because there hasn't been a law precluding dirty generation, nor a cost associated with it. Institute a cap-and-trade system (the current Waxman-Markey bill or something better) or an enforceable carbon tax, and necessity (or at least incentive) is created.
Perceived necessity is our friend. And current culture is more likely to perceive necessities which are expressed in dollars. Dollars of cost, meaning dollars of (potential) cost avoidance, stimulating dollars of investment and resulting in dollars of profit. Invent a better mousetrap today, and the world will pretty much ignore you because we already have mousetraps which work quite adequately, thank you very much. But stimulate an exponential increase in rodent infestation, or outlaw current-design mousetraps as too noisy, or cruel to animals, or whatever; a new mousetrap design which complies with an enhanced regulatory environment becomes a sure money-maker.
One potentially better mousetrap (at least, at present) is something called an "Anaconda". Nope, not the South American constrictor, the UK wave energy company (or its eponymous invention). A 200-meter rubber tube immersed in water with strong wave action, it's estimated to be able to produce 1 MW (1,000 kW) more or less continually, and with virtually zero emissions. (Unlike wind and sunlight, ocean wave action goes on 24/7. Sometimes it's stronger and sometimes it's weaker, but it rarely stops entirely.) Generation costs per kWh aren't yet competitive with coal-fired generation, but they're within striking range and likely to come down (see that Wikipedia article, above). If CO2 emissions stop being free, coal-fired generation becomes more expensive, demand for alternative technologies goes up, cost of environmentally-friendly generation comes down.
There's a bumper sticker around that says, "if you want peace, work for justice." By the same token, if you want invention, create necessity. Give those inventors a market to sell into. Then stand out of the way.
