Location: New York
Author: Ken Silverstein, EnergyBiz Insider, Editor-in-Chief
Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
President Bush's positions on the environment and the development of clean energy technologies have evolved during his seven years office. In his last year, he seems determined to be remembered as a leader who fostered more renewable energy while pushing the traditional fuels to be cleaner.
In his State of the Union address to the nation, the president said that the country would invest $2 billion over three years into a global energy fund to advance new technologies to slow the growth of global warming emissions. Since Bush took office, the federal government has committed nearly $18 billion to research, develop and promote clean and efficient technologies and help get them to market, his office says. The private sector has responded in kind with significant investments, ranging from corporate research and development to the venture capital markets.
"President Bush's call for a $2 billion clean energy technology fund sends a signal that the United States will do its part to address global climate change," says Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee. "However, as the president noted, we must receive significant contributions from every major economy if we truly wish to address this problem." Japan , meanwhile, has committed $10 billion over the five years for the same purpose.
All nations philosophically agree that giving developing nations such as China and India greater access to next-generation wind turbines, solar panels and coal gasification technologies will help trim carbon dioxide emissions. By allocating more money, development should occur faster and help bring down the cost of those technologies.
While research and development are one issue, overcoming trade barriers are another. Developing countries impose trade tariffs that make it difficult for western enterprises that sell clean energy technologies to be competitive. The U.S. government estimates that the growth of those technologies has been 15 percent since 2000 -- creating a demand that has motivated major U.S. manufacturers to expedite production. In fact, General Electric has generated billions in such sales.
The United States joined with the European Union in asking that World Trade Organization eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers to clean energy and environmental technologies. Global trade in the goods covered by the proposal totaled $613 billion in 2006 and could increase by an additional 7-14 percent annually, according to the World Bank. Such a hefty tax diminishes profits and serves to discourage future growth.
"The President's proposal for a worldwide clean technology fund is a major landmark in addressing global warming," says Philip Clap, with the Pew Trust. "Developing countries will need billions in financial assistance to cut the growth of their climate pollution over the next several decades," he adds, noting that the financial commitment must rise.
The president is also calling on this country to increase its use of renewable and nuclear energy. He adds that the nation must commit itself to the development of clean coal technologies that are purported to cut emissions regulated by the Clean Air Act by 90 percent. And, finally, Bush says that the United States must make a greater investment in advanced battery technology that can power the cars of the future.
The president was quick to cite his administration's achievements. Since 2001, wind power in the United States has grown 550 percent and photovoltaic solar power grown by 525 percent; overall, renewable power has nearly doubled. The President's Solar America Initiative -- launched in 2006 -- doubled U.S. investment in solar energy. The U.S. leads the world in geothermal electricity generation, meanwhile, with almost 3,000 megawatts of new capacity planned for development in the West.
President Bush indicated in his address that he would support a new global warming pact once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Such a treaty, however, must bind every nation to make commitments and specifically those in the developing world. "And let us complete an international agreement that has the potential to slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases. This agreement will be effective only if it includes commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride."
Despite the president's vows to increase this country's clean energy production, others are less sure at best and outwardly hostile at worst. For starters, advocates of extending the production tax credit that gives tax breaks to renewable energy developers when it expires at year-end were disappointed. A host of trade groups representing clean energy developers gathered to ask Congress and the administration to include that provision in the now pending $145 billion economic stimulus package.
While that tax extension is likely to be passed in a separate measure later in the year, the renewable energy groups said that the collective green industries attracted $20 billion in investment in 2007. That, in turn, created 6,000 new megawatts of clean power and thousands of new jobs -- most of which occurred in the wind sector. The continued uncertainty over extensions in the tax credits, however, hurts future growth.
Among President Bush's harshest critics is Greenpeace, which says that his focus on fossil fuel development has come at the expense of sustainable fuel production. The president will not be remembered as courageous, it says, but as one who kowtowed to entrenched incumbents and who tried to confuse the science governing climate change.
The "speech contains no new initiatives on global warming," says John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA . "Instead, the president recycles more of the same: more subsidies for dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power and, for old time's sake, one last try effort to open Alaska 's pristine National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling."
President Bush has always said his goal is to improve energy security while also confronting environmentally challenges and maintaining economic prosperity. He will invariably be chastised for how he has approached that delicate balance. The criticism along with his maturity in office, however, has pushed the president to promote greener policies -- a trend that will continue no matter who replaces him.
Republished with permission from CyberTech, Inc. EnergyBiz Insider is published three days a week by Energy Central. For more information about Energy Central, or to subscribe to EnergyBiz Insider, other e-newsletters and EnergyBiz magazine, please go to http://www.energycentral.com/ .