The National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas opened with Bill Clinton (see here) and wrapped up with consensus recommendations:
The federal government should:
Provide long-term tax incentives for renewable energy production and energy efficiency, including clean renewable energy bonds. Modify other tax policies to reward clean energy investments
Initiate electrification of our entire transportation sector so it uses only clean domestic energy soonEstablish, enforce and update building code standards for energy efficiency in new and retrofitted buildings to save consumers money and reduce fossil fuel use. Provide incentives for efficiency related renovations Reduce building energy use by 50% by 2030
Put a price on carbon pollution, through a cap-and-trade program or other means
Modernize and expand the nation’s electrical grid to make it smart and more secure, and capable of transferring or storing clean renewable energy in combination with electric vehicles, while providing greater access to such resources in an environmentally responsible way
Help fund the transition of states, like Nevada, or small countries around the world to be completely energy independent and carbon neutral to serve as an example of how these goals can be achieved
Act swiftly to increase the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, and increase funding for private-public partnerships to build a transportation sector that uses far less or no oil
Buy, and give significant incentives to consumers and small businesses to buy, clean alternative fuel and plug-in hybrid vehicles. This should include natural gas fleet vehicles
Fully fund and expand a green jobs/clean energy corps program to weatherize millions of homes, train workers for new energy technology application, build a smart grid, etc.
Set a national renewable electricity standard for utilities to produce a significant portion of their electricity from wind, solar, and geothermal energy. This should be at least 20% by 2020. It would reduce consumers’ energy costs, energy price volatility and greenhouse gas emissions
Provide incentives to states to decouple utility profits from electricity sales to encourage significant new investments in energy efficiency, and ensure net metering and time of use pricing/real time information is available
Create a Federal clean energy fund to invest in research, development and deployment of efficiency and renewable technologies
Encourage or direct utilities to organize the retrofitting of existing buildings
Expedite identification and reservation of Federal public lands that have high potential for the environmentally responsible production of renewable electricity, and improving permitting processes for clean energy production on such lands
Vastly increase the budget for clean energy research, development and deployment, including greater emphasis on commercializing research funded by taxpayers
Greatly increase investments in public transit to make it more affordable and accessible
Fully fund and expand LIHEAP, low income weatherization and Energy & Environmental Block Grant programs
Reduce Federal government energy consumption by half within the next fifteen years, using procurement power to buy green products, buildings and services
Fund research into carbon capture and storage technology that can dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants
Speed the transition from corn based ethanol to sustainable biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol made from wood chips, agriculture waste, and switch grass. This could include a joint US-Brazilian investment in sugar cane ethanol in the Caribbean, which would create jobs in this developing region
Convert solid waste landfills so that they produce waste heat, biofuels or fertilizer from methane emissions or organic materials
Establish programs to promote exports of domestically-made clean energy technology products. Assist China and India and other developing nations with their adoption of clean energy practices and technologies
States should consider policies to:
Require all new government buildings to be LEED certified
Convert state vehicle fleets to alternative fuels
Create incentives for renewable energy by lowering property taxes for these facilities, and exempting them from sales tax
Require that homeowner associations allow solar panels and other renewable technologies
Eliminate barriers and regulations that discourage energy efficiency. Increase transparency of commercial building energy use for consumers
Upon its conclusion, CAPAF Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy Daniel J. Weiss remarked:
The National Clean Energy Summit produced a comprehensive blueprint to build a clean energy economy. We will work with the next president to begin this urgently needed economic transformation. We greatly appreciate the thoughtful ideas from business people, union leaders, public officials and advocates.
Speakers at the NCES included:
- Senator Harry Reid, U.S. Senate Majority Leader
- President William Jefferson Clinton
- John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund
- T. Boone Pickens, Financier; Chairman, BP Capital Management
- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City of New York
- Governor Jon Huntsman, State of Utah
- Governor Janet Napolitano, State of Arizona
- Governor Bill Ritter, State of Colorado
- Representative Hilda Solis, U.S. Representative, 32nd District of California
- Robert E. Rubin, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Citigroup Inc.
- Van Jones, Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow; Founder and President, Green for All
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I’d like to see the location efficient mortgage (LEM) become more widespread and funded, so that home buyers are encouraged to live in more efficient urban areas. That and standard smart growth policies will help ease the transition as this nation reinvents itself towards a more sustainable future.
Nothing about undoing ocean acidification. :-(
Nothing on improving & expanding rail transportation, both for freight & passengers :sigh:.
Initiate electrification of our entire transportation sector so it uses only clean domestic energy soonEstablish, enforce and update building code standards for energy efficiency in new and retrofitted buildings to save consumers money and reduce fossil fuel use. Provide incentives for efficiency related renovations Reduce building energy use by 50% by 2030
fication of our entire transportation sector so it uses only clean domestic energy soonEstablish, enforce and update building code standards for energy efficiency in new and retrofitted buildings to save consumers money and reduce fossil fuel use. Provide incentives for efficiency related renov