[Mb-civic] A sane energy bill: Apollo in Action

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Apollo in Action
By Jay Inslee, Grist Magazine
Posted on May 23, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/22058/

On April 21, Congress stepped back in geologic time when the House 
of Representatives passed an energy policy of the dinosaurs, by the 
dinosaurs, and for the dinosaurs. This energy bill is truly a "Jurassic" 
piece of legislation that relies on a limited energy source derived from 
creatures and plants that died millions of years ago. In fact, 93 percent 
of the $8 billion in tax incentives in the bill go to oil, gas, and other 
traditional energy industries.

Shortly before the House debate, one national leader said, "I will tell 
you with $55 oil we don't need incentives to oil and gas companies to 
explore. ... What we need is to put a strategy in place that will help this 
country over time become less dependent." Incredibly, that leader was 
President George W. Bush. Even the president with the worst 
environmental record since Warren G. Harding cannot conceal that 
this energy bill is more technologically suited for the 19th century than 
the 21st century.

Instead of this petroleum-soaked energy policy, some of my 
colleagues and I have been promoting a new vision for our energy 
future, one that would avoid drilling in our pristine areas, while creating 
jobs, enhancing our national security, and protecting the environment. 
This clean-energy vision, called the New Apollo Energy Act, is based 
on optimism rather than self-doubt, on new technologies rather than 
archaic methods, and on faith in Americans' innovative talent rather 
than capitulation to narrow special interests. New Apollo will commit 
our nation to clean energy to increase domestic high-tech employment, 
reduce the effects of climate change, and advance our country toward 
independence from foreign oil. Though the Republican leadership 
refused to allow us to offer a version of New Apollo as an amendment 
to the energy bill, I will soon be introducing it as a separate bill in 
Congress.

New Apollo draws its inspiration from President Kennedy's original 
"Apollo" plan, which in 1961 challenged the nation to put a man on the 
moon within the decade and return him safely to Earth. Kennedy 
recognized that Americans love a good challenge and are the most 
creative people in human history. In a similar way, New Apollo 
challenges Americans to harness their legendary ingenuity and 
technological prowess to build a clean, economically beneficial energy 
system on our own planet -- a planet we want to keep comfortably fit 
for human habitation and free from global warming and conflicts 
arising over the control of petroleum.

Our New Apollo Energy Act will provide $49 billion in government loan 
guarantees for the construction of clean-energy generation facilities 
that will produce power from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, 
oceans, coal with carbon-sequestration technology, and other sources. 
The legislation will also commit $10.5 billion to research-and-
development investment tax credits for clean energy-producing 
operations. In addition, it includes a 10-year extension of the current 
credit for electricity generated from clean sources. Making these clean 
energy sources cost-effective for citizens will require this type of bold 
infrastructure investment by the federal government.

There is no one silver bullet that will solve the nation's energy crisis, so 
New Apollo pursues a number of other strategies as well. It creates 
national net-metering and interconnection standards that allow 
homeowners who generate clean energy to reduce their energy bills by 
feeding surplus electricity back into the grid. It also contains a 
renewable portfolio standard that will require all utilities to produce 10 
percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021.

Of course, the best way to generate energy is to not waste it, so New 
Apollo includes incentives for American consumers to drive fuel-
efficient vehicles, including tax credits for the purchase of hybrid, 
alternative-fuel, low-emission advanced diesel, and fuel-cell vehicles. It 
also provides an incentive program to encourage domestic automotive 
and aerospace manufacturers to develop new fuel-efficient 
automobiles and planes.

These boosts for clean energy and efficiency will make it possible to 
meet our bill's call for notable reductions in daily domestic oil 
consumption -- cuts of 600,000 barrels a day by 2010, 1,700,000 
barrels by 2015, and 3,000,000 barrels by 2020. These numbers are 
approximate estimates of the amount of oil the United States would 
soon be importing daily from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the entire Middle 
East, respectively, without a change in current policy. Lessening our 
dependence on foreign oil will greatly strengthen our national security.

That is in sharp contrast to what we would see under the Republicans' 
Jurassic energy bill -- an 80 percent increase in petroleum imports 
between 2002 and 2025, according to the president's own Energy 
Department. That bill fails to recognize that the United States has only 
3 percent of the world's petroleum reserves but consumes 25 percent 
of the world's oil -- simply put, we cannot drill our way to energy 
independence. Even with the most generous estimates, opening up 
the Arctic Refuge and other treasures for exploration would not have 
any significant impact on oil supply or prices.

A smart energy policy must also address the threats posed by global 
warming. Scientists have found overwhelming evidence that climate 
change is caused by rising greenhouse-gas levels in the atmosphere, 
driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. The argument is over -- 
debating global warming is as sensible as debating gravity. New Apollo 
would enact a proposal similar to the McCain-Lieberman Climate 
Stewardship Act by capping our emissions of greenhouse gases while 
allowing companies to purchase and trade credits amongst 
themselves to ensure the most cost-effective reductions, and funding 
research to help industries make the shift to cleaner operations. The 
bill targets one of the biggest greenhouse-gas offenders -- coal -- by 
providing $7 billion for the development of energy-efficient coal-fired 
power plants that sequester 90 percent of their carbon-dioxide 
emissions.

Allowing America's clean-energy industries to stagnate is economically 
dangerous. While the U.S. has remained fixated on oil and gas, 
Denmark, Germany, and Japan have surpassed our country in reaping 
the economic benefits of renewable-energy technologies. Non-U.S. 
companies now produce about 90 percent of solar photovoltaic panels, 
with Japanese firms alone controlling about 49 percent of the solar-
technology market -- technology that Americans originally developed. 
European companies control 85 percent of wind-turbine 
manufacturing, and the U.S. currently imports fuel cells from Canada. 
New Apollo will close this technology gap with foreign competitors by 
investing billions of dollars in new federal research into advanced clean 
technologies, and creating a government-funded risk pool to help 
struggling start-up clean-energy companies commercialize their 
products.

America's high-tech hubs like the Puget Sound area, which includes 
my home district, will significantly benefit from investment in clean 
energy. One study by the Apollo Alliance has found that a substantial 
federal commitment to clean energy could yield up to 3.3 million jobs 
nationally.

There is a sad irony in the fact that humans are now relying on energy 
from fossilized dinosaurs and vegetation, which died most likely as a 
result of climate change, to such a great extent that we are altering the 
nature of our own atmosphere. But we can change our path through 
optimism and ingenuity -- our country has a history of taking on tough 
challenges and triumphing. It is now time to roll up our sleeves, get 
down to work, and lead the world in developing new energy 
technologies through a New Apollo Energy Act.

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D) represents Washington state's First 
Congressional District.
© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/22058/
-- 
You are currently on Mha Atma's Earth Action Network email list, 
option D (up to 3 emails/day).  To be removed, or to switch options 
(option A - 1x/week, option B - 3/wk, option C - up to 1x/day, option D - 
up to 3x/day) please reply and let us know!  If someone forwarded you 
this email and you want to be on our list, send an email to 
ean at sbcglobal.net and tell us which option you'd like.


"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
   ---   George Orwell


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20050527/71a854dc/attachment.htm