How Will Obama Solve the Energy and Climate Problem?
by Stacy Feldman - Nov 5th, 2008
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"Change has come to America," declared President-elect Barack Obama in his victory speech. It has arrived at a time of "two wars" -- "a planet in peril" and "the worst financial crisis in a century." And so, he warned:
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term.
Certainly, no president can solve the climate crisis in four or eight years. But to his credit, Obama has laid out an aggressive clean energy agenda for America to start the fight. And with increased majorities in Congress, much of it could become law.
The nation should know before Obama takes office what he has promised to deliver. A summary, from his "New Energy for America" plan:
Cap on Emissions
- Target: 80% cut in emissions below 1990 levels by 2050.
- Enact an economy-wide cap-and-trade scheme with 100% allowance auction (no pollution rights given away for free).
- Invest a portion of auction revenue ($15 billion per year) into clean energy, efficiency improvements, next-gen biofuels and cleaner cars.
Clean Energy
- Invest $150 billion over the next 10 years in clean energy technologies.
- Create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require 10% of US electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012, and 25% by 2025.
- Extend the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for renewables for five years.
Green Job Corps
- Help the private sector create 5 million new green jobs from government's $150 billion clean energy investment.
- Increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct it to green technologies training.
- Create "Green Vet Initiative" to provide green job training and placement for US veterans.
- Invest $1 billion per year to help manufacturing centers modernize.
No More Dirty Coal
- Make it uneconomic to site traditional coal facilities with severe limits on CO2 emissions and a carbon price signal.
- Develop 5 commercial scale coal‐fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration.
Auto Efficiency
- Target: Eliminate current oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years.
- Increase fuel economy standards 4% per each year and double them in 18 years.
- Put 1 million plug‐in hybrid cars on the road by 2015.
- Give $7,000 tax credit for advanced technology vehicles, as well as conversion tax credits.
- Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to require fuel suppliers in 2010 to begin to reduce the carbon of their fuel by 5% within 5 years and 10% within 10 years.
- Convert the entire White House fleet to plug‐ins in 1 year.
- Ensure half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug‐in hybrids or all‐electric by 2012.
- Provide $4 billion retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers.
Building Codes
- Make all new buildings zero-emissions by 2030.
- Improve new building efficiency by 50% and existing building efficiency by 25% over the next decade to meet the 2030 goal.
- Achieve 40% increase in efficiency in all new federal buildings within 5 years.
- Weatherize 1 million homes annually.
- Ensure all new federal buildings are zero‐emissions by 2025.
- Increase efficiency of existing federal buildings by 25% within 5 years.
General Energy Efficiency
- Reduce electricity demand 15% from DOE’s projected levels by 2020.
- Reduce federal energy consumption by 15% by 2015.
- Flip incentives to energy utilities by ensuring that they earn benefits for improving
energy efficiency, rather than higher energy consumption. - Invest in a smart grid.
Global Climate Treaty
- Re‐engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. (First step: have a representative at the climate talks in Poland in December 2008.)
- Create a Global Energy Forum -- based on the G8+5, which includes all G-8 members plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
- Transfer American technology to the developing world to fight climate change.
Candidate Obama's energy proposal would be a seismic shift in national energy policy and a boon for the US economy. But the truth is, we don’t know the exact direction President Obama's energy plan will take.
First step is to pay close attention to who he picks to fill the nation’s top energy and environment jobs -- Sectary of Energy, EPA Administrator, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Interior and maybe even climate czar. (Grist has a good preview of the possible picks here.)
All in all, Obama faces a mountain of expectations on climate and energy issues. And we have absolutely no reason to believe that he won't make every effort to meet them.
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Fuel Economy
Smaller cars will have to improve as well as larger cars to keep the average up, otherwise and Aveo will be the largest family car available. To mitigate the cost increase virtually all low to moderately priced vehicles will be imported. Detroit will never be the same...
According to jim Hansen, in
According to jim Hansen, in this article, he's only got a term to do it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/18/jim-hansen-obama
So: "We may not get there in one year or even in one term." , might well need revising!
Energy Solutions
We must stop the misinforming and uninforming of the American public. Most people have no idea of the potential for renewable energy such as wind and solar. How many people have even heard of solar thermal power plants, which could play a big role in the future?
We hear about the intermittancy problems of solar and wind as if they were real roadblocks to developing these technologies. Meanwhile Denmark gets 20% of their electricity from wind power. Somehow the intermittancy hasn't stopped them. The biggest difference is that we have powerful lobbies intent on thwarting efforts to develop wind and solar. Denmark doesn't.
I have a new blog called Energy Solutions We Can Believe In that seeks to dispell this disinformation and inform the public of the the real potential of renewables.
http://energysolutionswecanbelievein.blogspot.com/
Anyone contemplating nuclear energy as a "clean" alternative should read "The Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy" http://www.theleaneconomyconnection.net/downloads.html#Nuclear
On my blog you will find at least a dozen problems with nuclear energy that the public is not hearing about.
People hear the calls for extensive expansion of nuclear power, satisfied with simple assurances that it is safe and reasonable. In reality nuclear power is not sustainable in any way, shape or form.
Neither is it safe or clean.
As far as the economy coming first, that is exactly why we should invest in renewable energy now and in a big way. It will kill three birds with one stone, the economy, the energy crisis, the environment.
Obama's Climate Proposals
The proposals have an air of unreality to them.
1. They are projected way too far into the future to be meaningful.
2. In the current economic enmvironment, fixing the economy will be the main priority, and may take a long time to do.
3. The laundry list offers no clues as to pathways to achieving aims.
4. Given the southern constituents that Obama won and must try to keep, more finely callibrated measures are needed to win them over.
5. Proposals must be better callibrated if they are to be enacted soon (or economically and politically feasible) enough.
The following are mandatory and doable, but don't necessarily promise much timely-enough action:
Global Climate Treaty
Re‐engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. (First step: have a representative at the climate talks in Poland in December 2008.)
Create a Global Energy Forum -- based on the G8+5, which includes all G-8 members plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
Transfer American technology to the developing world to fight climate change.
there's hope when power meets wisdom
Big Mind Big Heart
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