Mutz says Lugar plan outshines other energy bills

http://www.indystar.com/article/20101012/OPINION01/10120313/Lugar-plan-outshines-other-energy-bills

Written by John Mutz

It's no secret that Indiana's economy is struggling to regain its footing. Like the rest of the country, we've lost a lot of jobs and our unemployment rate is higher than it has been in many years.

What may be surprising to some, though, are the great strides our state is making in the area of clean energy industries during these difficult economic times.

Relatively quietly, Indiana is making a name for itself as an outstanding place to manufacture electric cars and the batteries that run them, not to mention solar panels and parts for wind turbines.

Gov. Mitch Daniels and his team have rightly begun to focus on this area of opportunity for Hoosiers. Over the last year, Abound Solar in Tipton, Wind Stream Technologies in New Albany, EnerDel in Central Indiana, Anderson-based Bright Automotive, Brevini USA in Muncie, and Elkhart's Think North America have made headlines for creating jobs and giving our economy a much-needed boost.

A number of well-established companies are also having a huge impact.

Remy International in Pendleton just entered a partnership to bring a new-generation electric drive system to market. Cummins just received more than $38 million in federal grants to develop a highly efficient and clean diesel engine. Allison Transmission's new hybrid drive manufacturing plant in Indianapolis will employ 100 when it reaches full production.

Duke Energy is investing more than $2.8 billion into its coal gasification plant, which will burn a cleaner gas to produce power.

With these innovations, we're ahead of the clean energy curve, but now we need some changes to federal policy to remain there. Energy independence should be a priority in Washington. So far the House has passed a bill, and the Senate has not reached a consensus on climate change energy legislation.

One bright spot has been the fact that Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar is among those who believe that the country needs to take steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He's filed a bill that will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent, or about 1.6 billion metric tons -- the equivalent of taking more than 240 million cars off our roads. His bill is a balanced approach that provides a reasonable step toward this goal, and it provides economic incentives that will support the growing Indiana clean energy business.

The evidence that clean energy leads to good, high-paying jobs for Hoosiers is clear. However, if you need more evidence consider this: China vaulted past Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines and is poised to expand even further. In addition, the Chinese have emerged as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels and are pushing hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

No matter what the case, we do need additional legislation at the federal level. It is better to consider an approach that doesn't threaten Hoosier jobs, such as cap-and-trade, but still moves us toward the goal of energy independence. Lugar's bill does this.

Mutz is a consultant and private investor, former two-term lieutenant governor of Indiana, former president of Lilly Endowment and former president of Cinergy/PSI Indiana.

This article brought to you by the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.

Cummins CEO Solso part of American Energy Innovation Council

This article suggested by Hannah R. Peterson who works for Cummins and is an individual member of the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.

June 17, 2010
Mark Land, Executive Director - Corporate Communications, Cummins

Cummins Chairman and CEO Tim Solso joined Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt and other business leaders last week in calling for the U.S. government to significantly increase support for clean energy research and development.

Solso is part of a seven-member group called the American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC), which is funded by the non-partisan ClimateWorks Foundation. The organization came together a few months ago to begin discussing how best to ensure that the United States has a consistent energy policy that allows the country to become a leader in emerging energy technologies.

According to AEIC, such leadership will “foster strong economic growth, create jobs in new industries and re-establish America’s energy technology leadership.” AEIC members unveiled a series of recommendations, including a tripling of the country’s annual public investment in energy technology research and development, at a press conference in Washington D.C. on June 10.

AEIC members spoke at the event, which was followed by meetings with President Barack Obama and key members of Congress. During his remarks, Solso stressed the value of private-public partnerships to developing environmentally friendly technologies and cited Cummins’ longstanding research partnership with the Department of Energy as evidence that such partnerships work.

“We have been working with the Department of Energy on clean engine technology for the past 20 years,” Solso said. “In fact, many of the technologies used in our engines today were developed in partnership with the DOE, our national labs, universities and other research institutions.

“But it’s not just about doing research. Innovation without implementation has no value. Our technology development is focused on delivering products that will work well in the hands of the customer. This flow of technology to commercialized product requires at the outset strong public-private partnerships.”

Among the recommendations made by AEIC:

• Creation of a “politically neutral” national Energy Strategy Board, which would be charged with developing and monitoring a comprehensive national strategy for energy technology development and overseeing a program to develop large-scale next-generation energy projects.
• Invest at least $16 billion annually in public funds in clean energy innovation, three times the current investment in such projects.
• Create and fund “centers of excellence” to address different clean energy technologies.
• Provide at least $1 billion funding each year (from the $16 billion recommended) to the recently created Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, which has provided a significant boost to energy innovation. ARPA-E focuses exclusively on high-risk, high pay-off technologies that can change the way energy is generated, stored and used, and has challenged innovators to come up with truly novel ideas.
• Establish and fund a New Energy Challenge Program to turn large-scale ideas such as fourth generation nuclear power and carbon capture and storage coal plants into viable commercial technologies.

“Cummins is proof that being a technical leader in fields such as emissions technology creates a competitive advantage for American industry,” Solso said. “We need to create the same sort of advantage for a full range of clean energy technologies in order to provide the types of jobs Americans need and the energy security our children and grandchildren deserve.”

To learn more about the American Energy Innovation Council, go to americanenergyinnovation.org.

To see and hear Tim Solso discuss the importance of clean energy technology to the United States, go to americanenergyinnovation.org/tim-solso-bio  .

To read the transcript of Tim’s speech at the AEIC press conference, click here.