|
WASHINGTON, DC, US, December 14, 2005 (Refocus
Weekly)
The governor of the state of Pennsylvania wants
the U.S. government to address the energy needs of the country by
increasing the role of renewable energies.
The federal government can take “simple steps” to “change the
course that our economy and our nation will take in the next
decade,” says Edward Rendell in a letter to president George Bush.
It can use its regulatory power to require greater reliance on
alternative fuels by utilities and energy companies, and use its
purchasing power to stimulate private investment in alternative fuel
production and fuel saving technologies.
It can also re-direct subsidies enacted before the energy companies
began making “extraordinary profits,” and allocate those funds to
production of alternative fuels, he explains. He has asked Bush to
provide federal leadership, authority and purchasing power and
resources “to turn our energy challenge into an economic and
political win for our nation.”
“To reduce imports of petroleum, we need to aggressively invest in
plants that produce transportation fuels from our coal reserves and
coal waste piles and from crops grown on American soil including
corn and sugar cane,” says Rendell. If the federal government
follows the leadership of the states, including Pennsylvania's
‘American Energy Harvest’ model, there would be many significant
benefits, including less reliance on the Middle East and more on
'Middle America.'
“Instead of imports growing from 59% of consumption to 66% in ten
years, they would fall from 59% to 53%,” he said. “Clearly we won't
be done, but we will have taken a huge step in the right direction.”
“By changing how and where we spend energy dollars, we can create
more jobs, increase domestic investment and make our nation safer,”
he explained. By 2015, his plan would mean 1 million barrels from
biofuels required by a federal alternative energy portfolio
standard, 10,000 MW of electricity from solar energy required by a
federal alternative energy portfolio standard, and 100,000 MW from
wind power required by a federal alternative energy portfolio
standard.
Pennsylvania is developing the country’s first waste coal-to-diesel
fuel plant, and is providing US$2.3 billion in government capital,
including $15.6 million to support Gamesa of Spain in setting up the
first manufacturing plant for turbine blades in the U.S.
“In the 1970s, America was abuzz with optimism about the potential
for clean renewable energy,” says Rendell. “Solar, wind and
synthetic fuels captured the imagination of environmentalists and
scientists alike but these alternative fuels did not capture the
marketplace because they simply cost too much for each kilowatt and
each gallon they produced.”
“Times certainly have changed,” he continues. “A kilowatt of wind
power now costs the same as a kilowatt of electricity generated from
traditional sources” and no longer is investing in alternatives a
fringe idea.
“Ireland’s economic renaissance has literally been fuelled by wind
power” and “if anyone suggests to you that these ideas aren’t ready
for prime time and cost too much, they are living in the past,” he
adds. “It’s clear that the largest energy companies in the world
realize that the only way they can offer a reasonable return to
their shareholders in the future is by diversifying their fuel
sources but it is unrealistic to expect that these companies, whose
profits depend on fossil fuels, will move fast enough without
federal leadership.”
The energy bill passed in August by the federal Congress increased
tax incentives for alternative fuel development but “at its core,
that bill relies on old-fashioned thinking and old-fashioned
technologies to do more of the same” with only $36 million to
promote ethanol but $1.8 billion for fossil fuels. “It continues a
very troublesome pattern of providing twice as much funding for oil,
gas and nuclear research as we provide for research on clean coal
and renewables combined, and the tax credits for renewables are set
to expire in just a year or two, which causes widespread uncertainty
in the market and discourages investors from making long-term
commitments.”
“When it comes to wind, geothermal or solar energy, the resource is
basically free, so the economic opportunity lies in the production
of the materials or equipment needed to harness the free energy,” he
explains. “Wind and solar energy production is now growing 30% a
year but most of that growth is happening outside the U.S. borders
and that has to change.”
“Like the Apollo mission and the Manhattan Project, we need to unite
these efforts if we are serious about accelerating our access to the
fuels we all know show great promise,” he says. “The stakes are huge
but the benefits of getting it right are even larger.:
“Deploying 10,000 MW of solar power by 2015 - enough to power five
million homes across the country - would generate tens of thousands
of jobs and add valuable peak power capacity to the electric grid,”
said Rhone Resch of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“Establishing this kind of visionary national goal is critical
because we face a national energy crisis. Commercial solar power can
contribute immediately to the nation’s peak power needs, and many
states are already moving ahead to develop their solar power
resources.”
Pennsylvania is emerging as a premier market for solar power and
jobs, and Rendell has passed a law to require 860 MW of solar power
in the state by 2020. The state developing streamlined regulations
for interconnection of solar PV systems and net metering,
Click here for more info...
Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/
for your international energy focus!!
Refocus © Copyright 2005, Elsevier
Ltd, All rights reserved.
|
