Sunshine not Moonshine

The last time I was in California was 2003. As I drove around what once was the dot com capital of the world, I was stunned by the acres and acres of empty commercial space. It seemed every building had a For Lease or Sale sign on it. That is quietly changing. ABC News reports that a new industry is rising from the ashes of Silicon Valley. Ironically, an industry based on silicon. The primary ingredient of solar panels. Still smarting from the Internet bubble burst, some of the technical braintrust of Silicon Valley is turning to what may be the next big thing, generating new kinds of energy for a country increasingly worried about dependence on foreign oil and the threat of global warming caused by the release of greenhouse gases. These are some of the same people who changed the world with the silicon computer chip, the hard drive, digital technology, even the Apple iPod. Follow the money. I repeated it throughout my campaign (nobody cared) and I'll repeat it now. This time, follow the money of the Venture Capitalists. VC's are the ultimate barometers for where the next big "thing" will come from. These guys aren't out to save the world, they're out to make a buck. Forget about being environmental. This is about supply and demand. Economies of scale. Manufacturing improvements. Low cost, high margin. Whew! My mouth is watering and my heart is racing. BRB. Valley companies are also working on fuel cells, biomass fuels, and a new generation of electric cars. The VC's are taking notice. A perfect storm may be brewing for dot com v2.0. This time the hot products will be solar panels. Rechargeable batteries. Micro wind turbines. Electric cars. The company that changes the way we power our homes, our lives for that matter may be toiling away in a steel building somewhere in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara. The next overnight millionaires won't be web programmers, they'll be physicists, chemical and electrical engineers. We could have that kind of excitement right here in Kansas City. Rather than pay extortion, err I mean incentivize local companies to stay, we should be sleazing around Silicon Valley, tax incentives in hand and selling a couple of these companies on our central location, low cost of living and surrounding educational institutions with excellent engineering programs. Wouldn't it be nice to see some solar panels popping up on rooftops in the West Bottoms? Ehh. Who am I kidding. Let's just keep growing corn and making ethanol. Excuse me. I need to go check on my still and make sure them goll dern revnuers ain't found my mash pots.