Climate and energy

It’s a little bit like Christmas. (In that department store Santa kind of way – because this bill may not make it past the Senate.)

However. As reported in Grist, the House passed a nice big chunk of production tax credits (PTC) for renewable energies such as wind, solar, biomass, and others. Quotable:

The bill includes a six-year extension of the investment tax credit for solar energy; a three-year extensions of the production tax credit for biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, and solid waste; and a one-year extension of the production tax credit for wind energy. There are also incentives for the production of renewable fuels such as biodiesel and cellulosic biofuels, incentives for companies that produce energy-efficient products, and incentives to improve efficiency in commercial and residential buildings…

… “One of the critical problems we’re facing today is energy prices, and the problem is we don’t have enough choices for consumers,” said (Representative) Blumenauer. “We’ve squandered American leadership in renewable energy — the United States was a global leader 30 years ago and we’ve lost that leadership internationally to other countries that are moving forward more aggressively.”

Blumenauer predicted that without these tax extensions, the United States could see “almost 20 billion in lost investment” in renewables, as well as up to 150,000 lost job opportunities in the green energy sector. He said that the potential to address energy concerns and create economic growth might help it win support in the Senate.

Energy efficiency updates. As the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) has just announced, “maintaining a long tradition of strong energy policy, the State of Iowa has recently passed a number of bills to promote energy efficiency.”

The initiatives include energy efficiency for schools, improvements to the state building code, and “requirements for non-regulated utilities regarding developing energy efficiency goals and reporting savings from energy efficiency programs, as well as establishing a program for tracking, recording, and trading efficiency credits.”

On the national front, the ACEEE has announced the results of a new study – energy efficiency is highly effective in reducing demand, yet it remains almost “invisible,” and thus is highly under-utilized as a resource. Major findings from the report:

• “Given the right choices and investments in the many cost-effective but underutilized energy efficiency technologies, the United States can cost-effectively reduce energy consumption by an additional 25-30% or more over the course of the next 20-25 years.”
• “Annual investments in energy efficiency technologies currently support 1.6 million U.S. jobs. The $300 billion invested in energy efficiency in 2004 was three times the amount invested in traditional energy infrastructure.”
• “Investments in energy efficiency technologies are estimated to have generated approximately 1.7 quads of energy savings in 2004 alone – roughly the equivalent of the energy required to operate 40 mid-sized coal-fired or nuclear power plants.”
• “Since 1970, energy efficiency has met about three-fourths of the demand for new energy-related services while conventional energy supply has covered only one-fourth of this demand.”
• “Total investments in more energy efficiency technologies could increase the annual energy efficiency market by nearly $400 billion by 2030, resulting in an annual efficiency market of more than $700 billion – and total additional investments over the period 2008-2030 of nearly $7 trillion.”

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org