Jan 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Lynn Cook Houston Chronicle


As Barack Obama takes office today, some fear forging new energy policy has faded into the background as pulling the U.S. out of recession has become top priority.

"Some people in Washington are talking about taking the energy issue off the table," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, warned the American Jewish Committee in Houston last week. "If we don't plan now, we will be right back in the same situation."

Here are three areas energy experts say are ripe for immediate attention, and positions Obama has taken:

GREEN BUILDING

Buildings account for more carbon emissions than vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, mostly because they use electricity to support heating, cooling and powering appliances. Nearly half that power comes from carbon-spewing, coal-fired plants.

In last year's Green Building Impact Report, which evaluated the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating system, author Rob Watson said LEED buildings consume 25 percent less energy on average. But he sees too little interest in adopting the standards for new buildings or retrofitting old ones.

"Our findings are both encouraging and cautionary," Watson said. "We need much more -- and much more quickly -- to reduce total emissions."

Obama has proposed expanding federal grants to assist states and cities build LEED-certified public buildings.

FUEL EFFICIENCY

The U.S. has a 20 million barrel-a-day oil habit. Two-thirds of that crude is imported and virtually all of its goes into vehicle fuel tanks.

"Oil has a monopoly on transportation," says Anne Korin, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, adding that solar, wind and nuclear power do nothing to diminish that.

"We need to dramatically boost fuel efficiency."

In 2007 Congress enacted new fuel economy standards, requiring cars and light trucks get 35 miles per gallon by 2020, up from the 27.5 miles per gallon target set for cars more than two decades ago.

Obama has called for raising fuel standards to 40 miles per gallon by 2022 and making all new cars and trucks flex-fuel vehicles.

MORE DIVERSE SUPPLY

How to stabilize prices while ensuring energy security? More oil and more alternatives, says John Hofmeister, founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy and former chief executive of Shell Oil Co. "It's time to steer the nation toward the directions we want to go."

The U.S. has an estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in the restricted outer continental shelf that could be tapped. Nuclear power is staging a comeback with the first permit for new construction filed for Bay City, Texas.

Independent energy adviser Joseph Stanislaw says investment in alternative energy is crucial to mitigate the eventual falloff in fossil fuel production after 2050. He says the government can create economies of scale that bring prices down by investing up to $1 trillion for a smart power grid, clean technology research and vehicles that rate in the top 10 percent of energy efficiency.

Obama advocates requiring utilities to make 10 percent of their electric power from renewables by 2012, and has signaled support for at least some expansion of offshore drilling.

lynn.cook@chron.com

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