{"id":5027,"date":"2011-04-12T15:43:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T19:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=5027"},"modified":"2011-04-12T15:43:34","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T19:43:34","slug":"pondering-americas-energy-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2011\/04\/12\/pondering-americas-energy-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Pondering America’s energy future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Solar<\/a><\/p>\n

I went to a New Republic<\/a><\/em> briefing this morning on the future of U.S. energy policy.\u00a0 What stood out most were the rather impassioned remarks from Senator Kerry (D-MA), who is not generally known for displaying much emotion.\u00a0 He opened his comments by describing America\u2019s \u201costrich-like\u201d approach to energy: \u201cI\u2019ve had it up to here,\u201d he said, motioning to just below his chin.\u00a0 Every prediction made years ago about this issue is coming true but even faster, said Kerry.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been receiving countless \u201cpostcards from the edge,\u201d he said; warnings and evidence that we are bringing about undesirable changes with our energy demands: pine beetle outbreaks no longer held in check by cold temperatures, lobsters and other marine life threatened by ocean acidification, record breaking heat waves and hurricanes.\u00a0 And in response to all these warnings, asked Kerry, what have we done?\u00a0 The answer: \u201cBusiness as usual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And while Kerry allowed himself a few partisan digs\u2014for example, we have a growing \u201cflat Earth caucus\u201d\u2014he did quickly move on to more pragmatic arguments that echoed those made by others, such as former Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is, we should use common sense to move forward on cleaner energy sources because doing so will be good for our health, jobs and the economy, and national security.\u00a0 Declaring that \u201cwe\u2019re our own worst enemy,\u201d Kerry said that he believes \u201cAmerica\u2019s greatness, America\u2019s capacity to lead, is really on the line.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>He pointed to the global competition in clean energy, noting that, according to a recent Pew study<\/a>, China holds first place, leading the way in solar panel and wind turbine production.\u00a0 Solar panel technology was invented in the U.S. decades ago by Bell Labs, yet China now exports this technology around the globe, selling it also to the U.S.\u00a0 Germany has recently jumped to second place, bumping the U.S. to third.\u00a0 While Germany is a far smaller country than the U.S., it has doubled its investment in cle<\/span> <\/span>an energy to $42.1 billion, while the U.S. invests $34 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in the briefing, several other speakers offered their views on America\u2019s energy future.\u00a0 Jacques Besnainou, Chief Executive Officer with the nuclear power services provider AREVA Inc. argued that the U.S. must come to grips with its aging nuclear fleet, the \u201coldest in the world.\u201d\u00a0 Doing nothing is not an option, said Besnainou; if no action is taken, these plants will have to be retired in ten years.\u00a0 Yet another panelist, Christopher Guith, Vice President for Policy at the Institute for 21st Century Energy<\/a>, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argued that because natural gas is currently very cheap, the option of building expensive new nuclear plants is at a distinct disadvantage.\u00a0 He argued economics\u2014not public concern\u2014is the number one reason nuclear energy appears to be going nowhere in this country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Panelist Boyden<\/span> Gray, Former W<\/span> <\/span>hite House Counsel, who helped craft the 1990 Clean Air Act under the George H. Bush administration, said that continued progress will require looking at emissions that come out of oil production because \u201cwe\u2019ve gotten pretty much everything out of coal.\u201d\u00a0 Gray said that coal to liquid has tremendous potential which can\u2019t be realized until the U.S. levels the playing field and regulates oil and diesel in the same way it regulates coal.<\/span><\/p>\n

His fellow panelist Charles Ebinger, Director of the Brookings Institution\u2019s Energy Security Initiative<\/a> said that because the U.S. is the \u201cSaudi Arabia of coal,\u201d and because countries such as China and India will continue to use it, the U.S. should be a leader in developing solutions to capture carbon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ebinger also said that until the U.S. ponies up the necessary $300-400 billion for a modern electricity grid, renewable\/clean energy won\u2019t be possible at the large sc<\/span>ale this country requires. The reason?\u00a0 We need a way to move the solar and wind energy created in different pockets of the country to often far away areas where large populations actually live.\u00a0 Besides the formidable fiscal hurdle, added Chamber of Commerce\u2019s Guith, is the daunting challenge of laying transmission lines across state lines, a veritable \u201cregulatory purgatory.\u201d<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Panelists also touched on what Ebinger called the \u201cgame changer\u201d of shale gas deposits.\u00a0 According to some estimates, he said, the U.S. could hold more shale gas than natural gas and could actually become an exporter to Europe.\u00a0 Conceding that shale gas brings with it environmental concerns, both Ebinger and Guith argued that the main concern is avoiding contamination of public drinking water by finding ways to recycle the water used during shale \u201cfracking.\u201d Otherwise, said Guith, the risk is that water contaminated with \u201cst<\/span>uff that comes out of the Earth\u201d during the process is not adequately decontaminated at water treatment plants which may be <\/span>unprepared to handle such toxins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Panelists Gray, Ebinger, and Guith seemed unified in their sentiment that the U.S. needs to pass some kind of energy policy that will address the issues they discussed and provide more certainty to U.S. energy industries across the spectrum.\u00a0 Senator Kerry echoed this desire. But, he ended his remarks by declaring that \u201cmoney is setting the agenda\u201d beyond anything he has seen since coming to the Senate nearly 30 years ago.\u00a0 He was referring to last year\u2019s Supreme Court decision in Citizens United versus FEC<\/a> that allows corporations to sink unlimited dollars into supporting or opposing state and federal candidates.\u00a0 Those entities with their hands on the \u201ccash cows\u201d of oil, said Kerry, will want to keep milking it for every last drop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo credits: Solar collector, DOE, Warren Gretz<\/span><\/p>\n

Senator Kerry at New Republic briefing, Nadine Lymn, ESA
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Wind turbines, NREL<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to a New Republic briefing this morning on the future of U.S. energy policy.\u00a0 What stood out most were the rather impassioned remarks from Senator Kerry (D-MA), who is not generally known for displaying much emotion.\u00a0 He opened his comments by describing America\u2019s \u201costrich-like\u201d approach to energy: \u201cI\u2019ve had it up to here,\u201d he said, motioning to just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[327,470,177,1085,1201,135,53,1123,378,69,665,558],"class_list":["post-5027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","tag-carbon","tag-china","tag-clean-air-act","tag-clean-energy","tag-clean-energy-competitiveness","tag-economy","tag-energy-policy","tag-marine-life","tag-nuclear-power","tag-ocean-acidification","tag-oil","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}