Big Climate Bill Nixed for the Year

July 25, 2010 – Vol.15 No.19

BIG CLIMATE BILL NIXED FOR THE YEAR.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

You’d think this would be the perfect year to enact significant climate and energy legislation here in the US. The Deepwater Horizon mess in the Gulf of Mexico has rallied more troops against oil, and the hot, hot, really hot summer in much of the country has likely turned many global warming deniers into believers.

But there will be no major climate and energy bill this year. It’s an election year and Senate Democrats are watching their backsides and their cushy seats afraid the Tea Party will take them away. The House passed a comprehensive energy and climate bill last year.

Senate Democratic leaders instead say they’ll be offering a bill that’s like one of those flavored bottled waters: mostly water with a hint of taste. Supposedly in the bill there’s a provision for funding more home energy efficiency improvements (good idea) and another to promote natural gas vehicles. (If these Senators hadn’t noticed, the Obama administration is pushing for electric drive, not natural gas. Car builders aren’t particularly interested in pressurized gaseous fuels nowadays.)

Don’t be surprised if this bill is headed for the circular file.

So those cap and trade opponents need no longer worry. Cap and trade is gone for this year. Obama will have only 2011 to do something about climate change. He wouldn’t attempt such a contentious issue in his reelection year, 2012.

However – going out on a limb here – I wonder if a massive climate and energy bill is even necessary. The purpose of a big bill would be to move the nation towards cleaner energies in a big way. Maybe lots of little bits of legislation, the kind that no one beyond Washington notices, but often get bipartisan support, would get the job done. Further, maybe current laws and initiatives already on the books at federal and state levels are enough to do the energy cleanup job, at least for the next few years.

For example in a small bit of legislation, both houses of Congress have approved in committee bipartisan support for bills designed to jump start the deployment of electric vehicles and infrastructure in the country. The legislation “echoes recommendations put forward by the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to promoting policies and actions that facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale,” according to a press release from the group.

There’s some proof as well that relying on existing federal and state tools can build more clean energy capacity and reduce greenhouse gases. A new study from the World Resources Institute (WRI) concludes that, “if they act aggressively, and if US EPA’s authority is preserved, the federal government and states can put the United States on a near-term course to considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but longer-term reductions remain uncertain.”

WRI goes on to say that “The analysis finds that if the federal government and states move aggressively through 2016, agencies—chief among them the US EPA and the Departments of Transportation and Energy – could successfully use existing authorities to put the country on a trajectory to meet the Obama Administration’s reduction target “in the range of” 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.” Moving aggressively is key and the WRI considers three scenarios, each representing a level of technical feasibility and corresponding regulatory ambition by federal agencies and state governments.

The WRI feels that after 2016 additional tools to cut emissions will be needed.

The marketplace has been responding well to existing federal and state incentives as well as state renewable energy portfolio standards to build clean energy capacity and cut emissions. Solar energy is the poster child here.

Solarbuzz, a globally recognized market research-based business focused on the solar energy and photovoltaic industries, says in a new report that the US solar market is on track to grow tenfold by 2014. Within the next five years, Solarbuzz forecasts the market will grow to between 4.5 and 5.5 gigawatts, a rate of growth of about 30 percent per year. Even in a slow economic environment the US solar market grew 36% in 2009: Pretty good for bad times.

Solarbuzz thanks current incentives and mandates for growth in the industry.

It shouldn’t be very hard to pass new legislation here and there to keep the green energy industry expanding. Even states whose congressmen are opposed to sweeping national legislation are willing to vote yes on bills that help them at home.

Links:

World Resources Institute (WRI):

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States Using Existing Federal Authorities and State Action.

http://www.wri.org/publication/reducing-ghg-emissions-using-
existing-federal-authorities-and-state-action

Solar Buzz:

United States PV Market 2010 (fee)

http://www.solarbuzz.com/USGridConnect.htm