Pass Vital Policies
Not all these innovators will succeed. But imagine if half of our cars were powered by electricity instead of imported gasoline. Or that half of our homes and businesses were powered by sunlight and wind instead of natural gas and coal. Entrepreneurs are working hard, but entrepreneurs and venture capitalists cannot do it alone. We need five vital policies that will drive investment, innovation and jobs in green technology.
- A unified, national smart grid. Now is the time to build the infrastructure for wide-scale deployment of our renewable energy sources. We must be able to move, monitor and manage our electricity usage effectively.
- A price on carbon and a cap on carbon emissions. We need to account for the true costs of emitting greenhouse gases. We cannot continue dumping 70 million tons of CO2 into our atmosphere every day as if it is a free, open sewer. A price on carbon will propel carbonless innovations such as solar cells, wind turbines and countless others to market, at scale, more quickly.
- A national renewable portfolio standard. Standards imposed by states have stimulated $65 billion in expenditures. A nationwide renewable portfolio standard will allow faster deployment of energy innovations, with more scale and more jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy projects that a 20 percent renewable portfolio standard by 2030 would create 500,000 jobs, save consumers $128 billion through lower natural gas prices, and cut the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as taking 140 million automobiles off the road.
- Utility regulations and incentives to encourage efficiency. We need to unleash utilities so they can invest in efficiency gains. Over 20 years efficiency programs run by California’s utilities have saved $56 billion and created 1.5 million jobs. Get this single federal policy right, and it will create the biggest, fastest and most energy-efficient engine for new jobs: for contractors, builders, engineers, project managers and more.
- Serious funding for R&D&D (deployment) at scale. We need more federal funding for basic research. Today, with few exceptions, the Department of Energy spends less than $1 billion for all renewable energy research. But we also need funding for deployment—the second D in R&D&D. America needs federal grants and loan guarantees to show that these technologies will work on a large scale. We should streamline the process, allow riskier bets and help to bring new technologies to market. Tax incentives for renewables and efficiency are another must. Let’s make tax incentives flexible enough to work in our current economy and be fully refundable, to encourage companies to invest in expensive scaling risks.
Energy is a $6-trillion market, with four billion electricity users. It is the mother of all markets, perhaps the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century. With policy leadership, America can create millions of new green technology jobs and industries and repower the country’s economy. By acting quickly and investing in technologies and entrepreneurs to build American leadership in the New Green Economy, we have a unique opportunity to simultaneously address our economic, climate and energy security crises.
This article was originally published with the title The Green Road to Prosperity.
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4 Comments
Add CommentIt is good to see intelligent people, with intelligent ideas, coming forward and overpowering all the negative ideas about clean nondestructive energy and clean healthy living. I am trying to create an all green news journal called "The Voice Of America" that uses absolutely no paper, not even for paying wages, or dirty expensive machines that pollutes our environment, and would create over four thousand college graduate jobs but cannot find investors with enough foresight. This electronic journal will create jobs in every state and county of America and provide a news page for every community. I need venture capitalists with foresight and courage to take that first step and know the great potential in return of their capital. I do not know if SciAm will permit this but if you are a venture capitalist with great foresight, you can contact me at DavisJms7@dslextreme.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood article! See also Hot flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman for a book on the topic. http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Flat-Crowded-Revolution-America/dp/0374166854/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238081974&sr=8-1
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI like what you are doing, but as an Australian I feel deflated. I have invested a large portion of my retirement funds into renewable energy, financially not a good decision, but I don't care for money. I live a simple life minimising my impact on my environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe have had great innovations here, but I have seen them depart for foreign shores year after year, not all to the US and Europe our largest wind power turbine manufacturing company went to China.
This is a result of the power of the coal and steel lobbies in Auz. We waste billions on carbon sequestration, an impossible dream, but will not fund alternative energy sources.
It's clear that politics is the major problem and that politicians are the fire-eating dragons guarding the damsel of technological progress who is cowering in a citadel made of coal, oil and other dwindling resources.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey've got the green also (money from the corporations, that is.)
Take inspiration from the difficult lives of Robert Fulton and even Galileo and Giordano Bruno who cried from the flames: E pur si muove!
(And nevertheless it - the earth - moves!)