Asthe health care debate winds down, the next major national debate willfocus on energy reform. The investor coalition Ceres and the CleanEconomy Network organized a clean energy lobbyist forum this week atthe White House including corporate executives from more than 100companies, representing a wide variety of industries includingrenewable energy, information technology and athletic apparel. Thebusiness leaders met with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), whointroduced a clean energy finance bill this past summer, Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), all of whom are critical to passing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act introduced last week by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
The full list of companies represented is available at the official Department of Energy (DOE) site,and one glimmering fact, is the lack of representation from a companylocated in the state of Arizona, which is a state with enormous solar power potential. Even though Phoenix, Arizona is hosting the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo November 11-13 of this year, where former Vice President Al Gore is the keynote speaker, the state lacks significant corporate development in the clean energy sector, and manufacturing in general.
Duringthe forum in Washington, executives also met with Energy SecretarySteven Chu, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Office ofEnergy and Climate Change Policy Director Carol Browner. Chu warnedthat if Congress does not pass climate change and energy reformlegislation soon, the U.S. will likely be surpassed by China as aglobal leader in the production of wind turbines, solar panels, solid state lighting and other clean energy technologies.According to the DOE, China invests approximately $12.6 million inclean energy every hour, and the nation is ratcheting up to generate100 gigawatts from wind turbines by 2030. In essence, if the U.S.lapses in building a competitive clean energy infrastructure, includingcomplete supply chains for related technology, while signing onto a newUnited Nations (U.N.) greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions treaty,which will require significant reductions in fossil fuel energy usage,it may simply be exchanging foreign oil imports for Chinese or othercountry’s green energy imports. Thus, foreign oil dependence andramifications for national security will be simply transferred toleading foreign clean energy manufacturing countries. Currently, the U.S. ranks behind Germany, Japan and China in terms of solar capacity.
Mainly, the business leaders descending on Washington this week have urged members of Congress to pass a comprehensive climate change bill,which they forecast will foster billions of dollars in clean energyinvestments and ease the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, which hasbeen a cause for natural gas advocates such as T. Boone Pickens, whilecreating millions of green jobs in the process. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the original related House bill entitled the American Clean Energy and Security Actwould only increase energy costs for the average household by the priceof a postage stamp, 44 cents, each day. The White House has welcomedthe corporate involvement and its financial backing for this capstoneclimate change legislation, which is one of the major prongs of Obama’soverall agenda, including the green energy stimulus, as it will face a heated battle with Congressmen and lobbyists associated with the oil and coal industry in the coming months.
Moreover,a related business group called We Can Lead is heading a campaign onCapitol Hill this week including 150 business leaders from utility companies and the clean energy industry that involves 35 lobbying meetings. Twenty-eight companies and labor and green advocacy groupssuch as: United Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, GE, Weyerhauser,the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Action Fund arelaunching a seven-figure advertising campaign in support ofcomprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation. A barrage oftelevision commercials is expected to attract national support,analogous to the heath care reform initiative.
Amidst thelobbyist activity and legislative discussions in Washington, a vastmajority of Americans, across all political parties, strongly supportdevelopment and funding of solar energy, and their support for solarhas remained relatively unchanged over the last year. These and otherfindings were reported today in the 2009 SCHOTT Solar Barometer (TM),which is a nationally representative survey conducted by independentpolling firm Kelton Research.
The survey stated that 92 percentof Americans consider it important for the U.S. to develop and usesolar energy. This strong support for solar is essentially the same asthe 94 percent figure indicated by the June 2008 poll result with thesame question being posed. The difference is within the margin of errorfor both polls. This support for solar power is consistent acrosspolitical party affiliation with 89 percent of Republicans, 94 percentof Democrats and 93 percent of Independents agreeing that it isimportant for the U.S. to develop and use solar power.
In addition,77 percent, nearly eight of ten, of Americans feel that the developmentof solar power, and other renewable energy sources, should be a majorpriority of the federal government, including the necessary funding forbringing it to fruition. This sentiment also remains the same sinceJune 2008 with a tally of 77 percent. What’s more, the study alsoshowed that if people had to choose one energy source to financiallysupport if they were President, 43 percent of Americans would opt forsolar over other sources such as wind (17%), natural gas (12%) and nuclear (10%).
Accordingto a recent study conducted by the environmental group Greenpeace andthe European Renewable Energy Council, clean energy will create morejobs than coal. By 2030, there will have been 2.7 million more jobscreated than if countries were to retain their current coal and otherfossil fuel energy production levels. These findings provide additionalcarrots needed for both the U.S. and other major countries to agree toa new United Nations global warming reduction pact in Copenhagen inDecember.
In comparison to the health care debate, there appearsto be a much more unified national sentiment for clean energytechnology, which is linked to the overall climate change and energyreform initiative of the Obama administration. The transformationtowards a clean energy economy would offer a facelift to America’smanufacturing sector, particularly hard hit by the recession beginningin December 2007. Numerous recently closed factories for the productionof: automobile parts,chemicals, coatings, raw materials, aerospace turbines, computercomponents, microchips and other electronic components are excellentcandidates for the transition towards the manufacturing of clean energyor energy-efficient products such as: solar panels, advanced batteries, ethanol fuel, innovative hybrid electric vehicles, concentrating solar dishes, wind turbine blades, and carbon storage components.In particular, as more semiconductor companies outsource production toAsia, an emerging opportunity exists for the utilization of idlesilicon-based microchip process equipment for the production ofsilicon-based solar cells due to some overlaps in materials andtechniques that are administered.
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Image: Clean energy debate heads to White House (whitehouse.gov).
