8-19-08 by dugan
Las Vegas, NV — There was plenty of room for disagreement at the National Clean Energy Summit. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin made a pitch for the "clean coal" fantasy (possibly because his employer, Citigoup, is a heavy investor in traditional coal). Others defended nuclear, in some cases to boos. But almost every one of the nearly two dozen speakers and panelists, including four governors, agreed on the stupidity of energy politics in Washington today. A few near-universal points:
1. Renewal of federal renewable energy tax credits for wind and solar, which expire at the end othe year, is stuck in a Senate catfight. Pass it, said the governors of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, or wind and solar investment money is going to go somewhere else.
2. Energy efficiency, the "low-hanging fruit" of energy conservation, is just sitting there waiting to be picked, while the federal government all but twiddles. That’s easy stuff like demanding tougher efficiency standards for all appliances, phasing in a requirement for energy-saving bulbs, subsidizing and demanding new-building efficiency, which ultimately pays for itself.
3. Let the states do what they need to do, without federal interference. (As with the EPA’s decision that California could not enforce its new auto-efficiency standards, because that’s a federal right) But Washington has to take the lead, and this will be left to the next president.
4. Politicians take no risk today by backing conservation and renewable energy, and no backlash from the phrase "global warming." The public, even in solidly conservative states like Utah, is hungry for renewable energy, and an energy future that will benefit their children. The White House is huddled in a cave on this point.