OBAMA, GORE, GREENPEACE – HOW LONG WILL THIS BE GOIN’ ON?
Submitted by New Energy News Blog
Actions speak louder than words – except in politics. Nothing is louder than the onslaught of the chattering classes. The sheer volume of words is enough to turn any head.
The present administration’s New Energy policy has, despite its rhetoric, emerged in a series of ineffectual programs (the Solar America Initiative without extending the investment tax credit), bright but unsupported policy forecasts (20% Wind By 2030 without extending the production tax credit), misguided targets with weak standards (boosting the boondoggle of corn ethanol while fighting strong vehicle mileage requirements) and foot-dragging on permitting processes (for offshore wind, ocean energies and solar power plants).
All this went on while the Old Energies rolled in profits and critics complained that the U.S. had no national energy policy.
In recent months, Al Gore and Boone Pickens and a wide variety of think tanks and environmental organizations have spoken out with forward-looking energy plans. Unfortunately, the net effect is somewhat confusing.
Science and energy writer Michael Schirber pointed out that while Gore says the shift to 100% New Energy can come in 10 years, Greenpeace International sees it taking until 2090.
Former Vice President Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for work on global climate change, on his 10-year plan: “This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative…”
Sven Teske, renewable energy campaign, Greenpeace International: “Al Gore can say 10 years because he is Al Gore…We can actually back up our [2090] targets.”
President-elect Obama has not made such promises or predictions. Instead, he has proposed action: “…I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President…”
The incoming President also plans to fight for a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring U.S. utilities to obtain 10% of their power from New Energy sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025.
And the President-elect recently reiterated his commitment to work for a greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs) reductions program that will target getting the U.S. to 1990 GHG levels by 2020 and to 80% of present levels by 2050.
In comparison to what came before, these goals are truly noble. They are neither as bold and optimistic as the Gore plan nor as universal and comprehensive as the Greenpeace plan.
Whether the nonstop action of Obama’s coming fight for a New Energy economy will quiet the vociferous naysayers Old Energy and the screaming idealists dreaming tomorrow remains to be seen. Or heard.
President-elect Obama: “Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”
