Energy Smart

On May 16th,

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences joined 12 other national science academies … in calling on world leaders — particularly G8 leaders who will meet in June — to address global climate change and energy-access issues by promoting low carbon-emission energy systems and more efficient use of energy. The academies also urged leaders to facilitate scientific and technical innovation, and to simplify and enforce a balanced intellectual property regime.

This is a strong and clear statement … a clarion call even.  Sadly, it is unlikely that you saw anything about this in your local paper or another ‘traditional’ news source. I hadn’t.  Thanks to Michael Tobis at Grist for the tip to this important statement.

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The automobile industry is investing “way north” of one million dollars to gin up grass roots opposition to the Senate proposals for moving automobile fuel standards to 35 miles by 2020.

As per the Detroit News

Despite rising gas prices and a growing concern about climate change, the auto industry is going on the offensive to convince Americans to oppose dramatically higher fuel economy requirements.

There is so much wrong here that it is hard to know where to start … the outrage meter is in the red zone … (more…)

There are good examples out there, of places and areas which are moving on a path toward a better tomorrow, who are taking the steps to Energize America.

Arlington County, Virginia , in sight of the US Capitol and home of Arlington Cemetary and The Pentagon, is one of those communities.

Paul Ferguson, the County Board Chairman, announced his objectives with his inaugral speech, with the key section:

My special focus this year is on the environment.

Let’s take a quick look at that focus and how it is going.

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Global Warming skeptics often focus on the messenger, Al Gore, rather than listening to the message. We should hope the same thing will not occur with the  Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI) Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program.

This is related to the CCI’s C40 Cities: Climate Leadership Group, which brings together 40 of the world’s largest cities for collaboration and lesson sharing for tackling climate change.

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The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency released the International Energy Outlook 2007.  As with always, what a magnificent resource — a tremendous amount of data that anyone interested in energy issues will be citing. 

Their rearward look — what’s happened already — invaluable.

Their forward look — what will happen — would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

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The vast majority of PV installed on rooftops is just that … installed on rooftops.  Developing in recent years have been Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics (BIPV)

The objective being, the transition of solar PV, from being just a merely bolted on afterthought, into being an integral part of the building, dare we say part of every building? 

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Photon Consulting has issued a report claiming that, by 2020,

by 2010, the cost of solar will be below the price of grid electricity for at least 50 percent of OECD residential demand, equivalent to around 1,500 GW of solar power. This is much larger than the 15 GW of cell/module production PHOTON Consulting anticipates for 2010

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On energy policy, we need to change fast, or sink slowly

Governor Richardson, at a speech earlier today at a New America Foundation Energy Efficiency conference, laid out an energy concept worth paying attention to.

With an aggressive set of objectives based on five core principles, Richardson has

stake[d his] claim to being the next president, the Energy President, on the concept of a fast, comprehensive energy revolution in the United States.

He talked of paths forward, of benefits to accrue, and the criticality of Global Warming. He even touched a third rail — one meriting touching:

I am calling on the American people to join in together to sacrifice for the common good.

Richardson has set the bar high, where it should be. Straight off, from someone focused on energy and climate policies and challenges, he presented a powerful policy concept that merits being central in our discussions about America’s and the world’s future.

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To continue the stream of business news related to tackling Global Warming (Wal-Mart and Kohl’s solar; MSNBC Europe’s 50 low-carbon companies, News Corporation’s climate change strategy), a key player in the financial services world has made a commitment of $50 billion targeted toward tackling Climate Change.  Citi plans to build on $10 billion it has already  invested in climate change related investing.
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Simply put, we can’t afford as a nation to be stupid anymore …

And, part of the path toward stopping stupidity is understanding when smart policy has gone awry and now is stupid … simply bad for the nation.

Truth be told, there are many programs and many arena where that is true. For an excellent example of this, see Devilstower’s masterful Earth Day: Drowning in Concrete. The national investment in highways might have made sense under President Eisenhower, but our continued massive overinvestment in concete is damaging us today and into tomorrow.

Well, another long-term investment program has moved from the bin of smart policy into dangerously stupid: From the brilliance of the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration to the too-often disastrous 21st century Rural Utilities Service.
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