The leaders of the American Wind Energy Association, Geothermal Energy Association, National Hydropower Association and Solar Energy Industries Association today (11/13/08) released the following statement:
The fast-growing renewable energy sector is poised to help lead the U.S. economic recovery with millions of new jobs and billions of private investment dollars. However, the new Administration and Congress need to take action to ensure that the renewable industries’ growth continues, given the current economic realities.
President-elect Obama has made a commitment to key policies that will spur substantial growth in America’s clean renewable energy industries and create millions of new jobs.
Building upon these key policies, the renewable energy industries’ top priorities for the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress include:
• Immediate Action:
- Adjust renewable energy tax credit policies so incentives work as intended given current economic conditions.
- 111th Congress:
- Adopt a national renewable electricity (portfolio) standard to ensure that at least 10 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from renewable energy sources by 2012, and at least 25 percent by 2025;
- Approve a minimum five-year extension of the federal renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) and additional funding for the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) program;
- Issue an Executive Order expanding federal procurement of renewable energy generation to meet the government’s substantial energy supply needs;
- Launch a major initiative to support investment in our nation’s interstate electrical grid infrastructure and smart-grid technology to deliver green energy from areas with renewable resources to population centers and to support distributed power generation;
- Invest $30 billion in 2009 for financing options that support new project development and installations for all renewable energy technologies as part of the Administration’s commitment to investment of $150 billion over the next ten years in clean energy technologies;
- Adopt a cap-and-trade regime to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that rewards production of clean renewable energy.
If the Administration and Congress can quickly implement these policies, renewable energy growth will help turn around the economic decline while at the same time addressing some of our most pressing national security and environmental problems. Expansion of renewable energy production will mean billions of dollars in economic growth, millions of new jobs, enhanced energy security as we increase domestic energy production, and critically important progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Randall Swisher, Executive Director, American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org, 202.383.2508
Karl Gawell, Executive Director, Geothermal Energy Association, www.geo-energy.org, 202.454.5261
Linda Church Ciocci, Executive Director, National Hydropower Association, www.hydro.org, 202.682.1700
Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association, www.seia.org, 202.682.0556
2 comments:
This past year the exorbitant cost of gas has seriously damaged our economy and society.Families struggled just to fill their vehicles up at the pump to tend to the bare necessities of life. Manafacturers passed on higher operating and shipping costs to consumers resulting in higher prices on every product imaginable. Most all electric companies asked for and were granted a record rate increase that further taxed the american family.Grocries went through the roof and many products not only cost more now they come in smaller packages. By the time we got done filling up the car and buying groceries most families had little left over to spend on so called extra's , save or invest. In fact most had to dip into their savings just to get by as of late.So, we in turn cut back, cut out the extra's maybe the cable, eating out, movies, going longer between hair cuts, some have even stopped taking necessary medicine because they can no longer afford it. We drive less, OPEC cuts production, we drive even less, they vow to cut more to jack the prices back up.(and they will) Our counrty spent 168 BILLION dollars on a economic stimulus package that did NOTHING for our economy. That would have gone a LONG way towards getting our nation started on the road to energy independence. We have so much available to us in the way of FREE ENERGY such as wind and solar. Electric plug in cars would cost the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon to drive. 168 BILLION would have gone a long way toward making that technology more affordable to the average Joe. Jeff Wilson has the best book ever called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW. If you are worried about our economy and want to see our nation become energy independent I highly recommend this book.
www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com
Given its inability to contribute to baseload needs and its low capacity value, doesn't wind get more public money than it
deserves: (1) the Federal Production Tax Credit for electricity from wind provides 2 cents per kilowatt-hour generated; assuming a 30% capacity factor, 1,000 MW of wind capacity gets a $525,600,000 tax break over 10 years; (2) a 5-year, double
declining balance accelerated depreciation gets another federal tax break worth the full cost of a wind farm over the five years (this could be worth billions in taxes the rest of us have to make up); (3) many states provide a similar deduction from otherwise taxable income; (4) many states provide grants for wind plants; (5) wind plants are often exempt from local property taxes. Why not end all subsidies for energy (including oil), and focus policy on distributed generation to minimize infrastructure costs?
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