By Jessica Goad
Speaking yesterday at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar highlighted the importance of using public lands in our nation’s transition to a green economy.
“We can’t afford to turn the clock of progress back to the past,” he said.
Salazar discussed a number of accomplishments that the administration has achieved in promoting renewable energy on public lands, including expediting seven projects worth 5,000 megawatts and unveiling of the first wind energy project on public lands in Nevada. Altogether, he said, the Obama Administration has permitted 31 solar, wind, and geothermal projects on public lands.
Also on Monday, the Departments of Defense and Interior signed a memorandum of understanding outlining a new partnership to encourage the development of renewable energy for military installations on lands managed by the Interior Department that had been previously used for defense purposes.
In a report released earlier this week, the Center for American Progress found that there is vast potential for renewable energy development on federal lands in the West. In total, about 34 gigawatts of renewable energy — enough to power 7 million homes — could be sited on public lands in six western states over the next two decades.
Salazar also used his keynote speech as an opportunity to urge Congress to extend the wind energy production tax credit, which he said “ought not be a Republican or Democratic issue, but an American issue.” Last week, a spokesperson for presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney noted that the candidate would allow the tax credit to expire, putting 37,000 American jobs at risk.
Jessica is the Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
“We can’t afford to turn the clock of progress back to the past,”
Then why are you still selling leases for coal, the energy resource of the 19th century? Keep oil and gas and uranium exploration off public lands! We might still need oil to run the economy but we can get by without making a mess of public lands. Pretty schizophrenic policy don’t you think? The military wants its own solar and wind for security. They do not trust the reliability of the US grid. It is getting old. It is subject to outage due to extreme weather events and it is subject to terrorist attack. I am surprised the military is not insisting that the US highway and bridges be brought up to safe standards.
What a guy.
Like Obama, Salazar is trying to have it both ways. No doubt he sings a different tune when he speaks to the fossil fuel boys.
Either we get off dirty GHG emitting power or we don’t. These guys don’t get it.
So stop leasing coal mining land so cheap!
If the Democrats control Congress next year, we should demand a coal export tariff to make coal more expensive for the Chinese. Or form the Organization of Coal Exporting Countries (OCEC), modeled after OPEC, to raise the price of coal internationally.