Washington (Platts)--18Aug2008

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that wind, solar, and other
forms of renewable energy must receive US tax credits lasting six to eight
years as part of a much broader strategy to prove economically that scaled-up
clean domestic energy can be achieved.
"It is imperative that we have longer time horizons," Clinton said,
speaking at the first of two days at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las
Vegas, Nevada. "We are not going to get close to what we need to do unless we
can convince people that it's good economics."
In a far-reaching speech on energy and the environment, Clinton took aim
at a broad array of domestic and international challenges. He said economic
stagnation, the threat of countries using their energy resources as a
weapon, and climate change should be central international concerns.
Much of his speech centered on his belief that proving energy
independence, even in a small number of cases, would prove to the world that
it can be done.
Clinton singled out Nevada and Puerto Rico as prime examples in the US
for advancing renewable energy for their rich solar and wind resources. "If
you do it, it would rock the world," he told the crowd at the University of
Nevada at Las Vegas.
He added that most Caribbean countries, Liberia, Rwanda, East Timor, and
Papua New Guinea could be international examples of the same goal with enough
focus and investment.
Clinton spent much time trying to debunk arguments that capping
greenhouse gas emissions would cost the economy jobs and money. Clinton chided
fellow Democrats for touting studies, which show even a 1% reduction in
anticipated economic growth.
"If that's our line, we're going to lose," Clinton said.
Getting large developing countries like China and India to adopt cleaner
technologies at a larger scale with higher front-end costs would be impossible
if there is any perceived economic slowing, he said. He urged everyone to
"re-imagine the economics" because putting in renewable power might cost more
initially, but it pays for itself over time when compared with coal-fired
power plants.
"I think we should demonstrate to the rest of the world that this is not
an affectation for wealthy countries," he said.
Clinton set out a wish list he would like to see the next president and
congress enact next year. He supports his party's presumptive nominee,
Senator Barack Obama, but he also had praise for Senator John McCain, the
Republican presumptive nominee.
Both men support a greenhouse gas emissions trading market, commonly
known as a cap-and-trade system. Their plans would reduce the harmful
emissions believed to cause global climate change.
Clinton said that the single largest achievement would be enacting such a
system. Yet while doing that would be important, a longer set of other issues
would do more, he said. That would include the renewable production tax
credits, modernization of the electric grid to get more plug-in vehicles on
the road, and nationally implement a process known as decoupling.
Decoupling has worked well in states like California and it involves
separating a utility's profitability from its total power output. "I recommend
that it be national policy," he said. "They will pursue conservation with the
same vigor with which they have pursued new power plants in the past."
Biofuels, he said, were very important but the US must move away from
corn as a feedstock. Clinton urged sugarcane to be used or taking cellulosic
waste and turning that into fuel. Landfill gas capture was vital as is
advancing carbon capture and storage from coal-fired power plants because
selling that technology to China and its growing fleet would make a huge
difference.
However, Clinton began with a forceful critique of opponents of the Kyoto
Protocol. Clinton negotiated the greenhouse gas emissions reduction deal in
1997, but its principles were rejected by the US Senate and President Bush
pulled out of it in 2001. Bush and many before have argued that Kyoto would
kill jobs and give other large economies without carbon caps like China a
competitive edge.
--Alexander Duncan, alexander_duncan@platts.com