Editor’s note: “The Angel Connection” is a regular feature in WRAL Local Tech Wire. LTW asked consultant Bill Warner to share advice for entrepreneurs seeking angel investors and/or venture capital investment. He is chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over 100 members throughout the Southeast.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The latest gasoline price survey is out – and the news isn’t good. Prices are up 10 cents a gallon over the past two weeks.
I have seen so much evidence that the proponents of global warming and the subsidization of alternate energy businesses actually want to drive up the price of gas and electricity. They cite the prices in other countries, asserting that we should be equivalent. Without higher prices for gas and electricity, these alternate sources of energy make no sense economically, especially solar energy.
Expect to pay
Just look at the records of who is running our energy policies and the Department of the Interior. These people intend to make our worst fears come true.
• Eliminate off shore drilling
• Reduce or eliminate the coal shale exploitation
• Adopt cap and trade so that we can redistribute our wealth to other countries
• No nuclear plants will be built
• Regulation will further drive up the cost of traditional energy
• Further taxation to pay for subsidizes to otherwise non-economic energy sources.
The stimulus bill could have helped
We could have invested in the creation of proven energy sources like oil production, new nuclear plants, oil shale production and others, that would create lots of high value jobs. Instead, we are going into further debt to pay for energy sources that are not competitive. Sure, let’s invest in high potential technologies that hold promise, but not at the expense of rapidly creating energy independence.
Business will feel the pain
This will be another right hook to the jaw of U.S. businesses. High energy costs will likewise drive up the cost of goods. Some industries will be driven to their knees, like transportation and others that have a heavy dependence on energy. Higher energy costs will just put another big hurdle in the path of entrepreneurs who need to reach a positive cash flow position, and to existing businesses that need to grow their profits so they can finance further economic growth.
Do you remember what happened when the price of gas was almost $5 per gallon? Do you remember what happened to our grocery prices when corn was diverted to ethanol production, a knee jerk reaction to a false economic proposition? Well, if these new folks in the administration have their way, those remembrances will seem like a picnic.
About the author: Bill Warner is the managing partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.
