This week provided little clarity about the future of U.S. climate and clean energy policies. Senators introduced new energy bills, announced their opposition to legislation they had formerly supported, and provided few clues as to which policies might actually get debated this summer. Meanwhile, time is running out to adopt strong clean energy and climate measures before election season arrives and we go another year without climate and clean energy action.
On Wednesday, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., introduced a new energy bill called the Practical Energy and Climate Plan. The legislation includes vehicle efficiency standards and energy efficiency standards for buildings, provides matching funds to help states establish industrial efficiency revolving loan programs, and expands loan guarantees for nuclear power, among other measures. It does not put a cap or price on carbon emissions, a key mechanism for driving investment away from carbon-intensive activities and into clean energy. And the renewable energy standard included in the bill contains significant loopholes that would allow utilities to pay an alternative compliance fee instead of developing renewable energy.
Many environmental groups noted that Sen. Lugar’s bill did not go nearly far enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Public health groups also objected to a section of the bill that would exempt coal-fired power plants from some of the pollution control requirements in the Clean Air Act. As the American Lung Association stated, “Americans should not have to wait another day –let alone nearly another decade –for cleaning up lethal air pollution from coal-fired power plant. The Senate must not halt the installation of lifesaving modern pollution control equipment.”
In a surprising move, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had previously collaborated with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., on the American Power Act, announced that he would support Lugar’s bill and oppose the American Power Act, which he helped develop.
With the addition of Lugar’s energy bill, there are now numerous clean energy and climate bills at play, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has yet to announce which bill will be serve as the basis for this summer’s Senate clean energy and climate debate. On Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told MSNBC that the Senate would be debating an energy-only bill that was approved by the Senate Natural Resources Committee last summer, and that the American Power Act’s cap on carbon emissions would only be considered as an amendment. But by Tuesday, Sen. Schumer had revised his statement, and Sen. Reid announced that no decision had been made yet on which climate and clean energy measures the Senate will take up. The confusion and indecision continued even after a meeting of key committee chairs on Thursday, intended to flesh out the Senate’s strategy to move energy legislation forward this year.
Photo courtesy of Fibonacci Blue.
Murkowski Resolution Defeated
Also this week in Washington, DC, the Senate defeated Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. You can read more about the resolution, which would have severely undermined the Clean Air Act, at the Apollo Alliance blog. While this is great news, it is tempered by the fact that a similar resolution, which would delay EPA action for two years, is expected to come up for a vote at a future date.
For the sake of our environment and economy, the Apollo Alliance urges the Senate to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate measures, including a cap on carbon emissions, THIS YEAR. Each day our national leaders fail to act, we fall further behind in the race to lead the global clean energy economy. Further delay also means we are doing nothing to avoid future tragedies akin to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It’s time to move toward a clean energy, good jobs future.
In Contrast, U.S. Military Moves Toward Orderly Embrace of Clean Energy
Last week, the Office of Naval Research announced that it will award grants of up to $100,000 to each of nine projects that will help the Navy reduce its carbon footprint. Dr. Kam Ng, ONR’s deputy director of research, said, “The success of these projects will translate to helping the Navy decrease its reliance on petroleum and reduce its carbon footprint in support of the Secretary of the Navy’s strategy for a greener force.”
The announcement brings into stark contrast the difference between the fitful path of clean energy and climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate and the orderly adoption of clean energy in the U.S. military.
The Department of Defense has a number of reasons for embracing clean energy. One is the threat that climate change poses to American national security. Military experts have concluded that climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the world’s most volatile regions and will add to tensions even in stable regions of the world (see National Security and the Threat of Climate Change). Another reason for the DOD’s embrace of clean energy is its high level of energy use. The DOD accounts for nearly 80 percent of the U.S. government’s total energy consumption, due to the large amounts of fuel needed to power military vehicles and aircraft, and the electricity needed to operate thousands of buildings, including military bases.
In late April 2010, the Pew Charitable Trusts released a report called Reenergizing America’s Defense about the DOD’s efforts to improve its energy efficiency and switch to cleaner sources of energy. The DOD has a goal of producing or procuring 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and each division of the armed forces has major clean energy projects underway.
For example, Navy officials plan to have half of the service’s fuel use come from non-fossil sources by 2020; the army is constructing a 500-megawatt solar power generation plant in California; and the Marine Corps has launched a campaign aimed at reducing energy intensity, water consumption, and the use of renewable energy.
“Everywhere you go, you see that the American GI is figuring out how to save energy,” said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a former Navy secretary. “Every base in the country has a plan to save energy. This whole Defense Department is mobilized and thinking green, and I salute their efforts.”
This is not to say that all is wine and roses between the U.S. military and renewable energy projects. For example, the DOD has tried to stop some wind projects that it says interfere with military radar. However, it does show that where there’s a will, there’s a way. If the U.S. military can adopt a 25 percent renewable energy standard, why can’t the U.S. Senate?
In other news …
* Clean Light Green Light CEO Nominated for America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneur. Apollo Alliance friend David McKinney, CEO of Michigan-based Clean Light Green Light, has been chosen by BusinessWeek as one of 25 individuals who are competing to be America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneur. McKinney is a former electrician whose company manufactures fixtures for LEDs (light-emitting diodes, which are highly energy efficient light bulbs). You can vote for McKinney, who is a big supporter of U.S. manufacturing and produces three product lines in Michigan, and learn more about him and the other nominees at BusinessWeek’s website.
*Johnson Controls plans to add 17,000 green building employees. On Thursday morning Johnson Controls of Glendale, Wisc., a leading company in the area of building energy efficiency, told clean tech analysts that it plans to add 17,000 employees around the world over the next five years to meet increasing demand for buildings to be more energy efficient and to produce their own renewable energy. Read more about the growing green buildings market in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
*Protest the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. This week, Moveon.org and 350.org organized more than 190 events across the United States to demand an end to America’s oil dependence, call for stepped up efforts to end the oil spill, and stand in solidarity with impacted Gulf Coast communities. Another day of action, Hands Across the Sand, is being planned for June 26. People around the world will go to their local beaches and join hands and say NO to offshore oil drilling and YES to clean energy. Go to the Hands Across the Sand website to get involved.
