Spending the stimulus money: energy

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

President Barack Obama has left the U.S. Department of Energy with a difficult task: how spending $150 billion over the next decade will result in 25 percent of Americans using renewable energy sources by 2025.

At the Energy Information Administration's annual conference in Washington today, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said that government funding will drive scientific research to make renewable sources of energy more accessible and affordable.

A Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist, Chu said that with aggressive research, adequate government funding and public support, America will spark a technological and scientific revolution in the energy industry, making renewable energies more accessible and less expensive.

President Obama has committed to doubling the funding of basic science in the next ten years, and Chu believes the funds will have significant impacts.

Chu believes that economic prosperity is tied intimately to energy affordability and energy security, and cautioned against being misled into believing that there is any correlation between the amount of energy a country uses and that country’s economic prosperity. Citing numbers from the Human Development Index, Chu displayed that over the past several decades California’s energy consumption has remained consistent while its GDP per capita has nearly doubled.

President Obama has said repeatedly that his energy plan is one that will help the economy by creating green jobs which are not subject to the threat of outsourcing, but opponents criticize the costs involved.

The Energy policy laid out in January’s Stimulus Package allots over $16 billion to energy efficiency and renewable energy, which is part of the broader $32.7 billion that the Department of Energy was given overall.

Lights out: America’s energy future

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

President Barack Obama’s massive energy overhaul may be cruising towards the edge of a cliff if the U.S. doesn’t start manufacturing more. Such was said today before Congress by Jeff Metts, President of Dowding Machining, a manufacturer of wind turbines.

Obama’s energy policy focuses on having 25 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources of energy by 2025. The Senate has introduced a bill, S.661, which sets a slightly different standard: 20 percent by 2025. Mett doesn’t believe that the U.S. can manufacture enough wind turbines quickly enough to meet either of these goals at its current pace. He said that in 2008 the United States produced approximately 4,000 wind turbines, but that it would have to produce over 10,000 turbines each year until 2025 to meet the energy goal. There are several large logistical concerns to this process, including the cost of transporting these massive components and the time taken to manufacture each one. The transportation costs make it difficult for foreign production of the necessary parts.

Mett presented a solution to the manufacturing problem, which would cut the production time of certain components down to an eighth of what it would otherwise be. His company is seeking investors for new manufacturing plants in the United States to build these turbines quickly and efficiently. Mett said that the improvements manifest in his manufacturing process would be “game changers” in making clean energy, and that they will be the new standard around the world overnight. This would place the U.S. in a competitive advantage in the energy market. David Roders, representative from the Department of Energy, said that tight capital markets have made it difficult for industries to invest in energy efficiency. On that topic, Mett said that the problem with innovations like this is finding the first investor – he is asking the Federal government to be that ice breaker.

This manufacturing investment would be included in the comprehensive energy legislation the Senate is putting together. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said that the Senate Bill will invest in America’s energy future. It will help industries be more productive while using less energy, create millions of new jobs, and keep America in its position as “a top innovator of clean energy technologies.” The intended byproduct of this would be lowered greenhouse gas emissions, which should slow climate change.

A Futuristic Grid and Fossil Gas are Energy’s New Pillars

Coffee Brown University of New Mexico, for Talk Radio News Service

During two energy conferences in Washington, DC, Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu said that a new, expanded, robust, and smart electric grid is the big ticket item for his department in the just-signed stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).

We are moving away, he said from locally produced power in pursuit of alternative energies, such as wind and solar, which are favored by geography in sparsely populated areas. As energy is produced in a fluctuating pattern due to local weather, and then sent farther away, a computerized grid which can direct, even out, monitor and store power will be needed. This coordination will extend even to homes, where fluctuations in use or peak draws can be managed to limit brown- and black-outs. he described circadian pricing, rewarding users who shift usage away from peak hours, and buy-back credits for homes which actually produce power as examples of smart distribution at the home level.

Chu noted that the new grid could be a target, so robust design was a security priority.
While wind power is as high as 20 percent in some areas, it is only three percent of overall production, and will need to mature and expand over a decade or more to compete on a cost-per-kilowatt basis.

Chu has made a priority of streamlining funding of shovel-ready projects, which were facing delays of up to two years for approval.

At the second conference, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and attended by entrepreneur and hedge fund manager T.Boone Pickens, the question of new regulatory agencies came up, as power distribution became less regional and more interconnected. Reid said that he thought it could be handled administratively.

Pickens said that there are vast reserves of natural gas at several fields in the U.S., far more than would be needed to bridge the gap to non-carbon pumping energy production. Trucks, he said, can never run on batteries but can easily be converted from gasoline to natural gas, which is 30 percent cleaner and would create many American jobs and businesses.

Chu concluded by saying that carbon capture and climate change are important topics that will be addressed in later stages of the program.

Bush Administration's energy policy discussed

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman spoke today at a full committee hearing with the House Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee on oversight of the Bush Administration’s energy policy. Bodman discussed the actions that the Bush Administration has taken or hasn’t taken in energy independence issues in the past and what their plans are for the future.

The United States produces only about 3 percent of oil, yet uses 25 percent of the worlds oil. Members of the committee expressed concerns over the greater dependence on foreign oil and the national security threat that opens up for the United States. Bodman said that the Bush Administration recognizes that is a concern and is investing in alternative energy for solutions. The Administration is spending $45 billion towards alternative energy. However, according to one Congressman that $45 billion is what the United States spends in a few weeks in Iraq.

Members of the Committee stated that the Bush Administration was not looking for alternative energy solutions, by not using the strategic petroleum reserve, getting ethanol fuel at the pumps or helping to pass legislation to promote venture capitalist investment in the alternative energy market. Congressmen said the Administration should be urging scientific research and pushing the entrepreneurial industry to invest in creating alternative energy solutions.

Bodman suggested that President Bush not use the strategic petroleum reserve, which could lower the price of gas temporarily, but instead continue to work with Saudi Arabia to get them to produce more oil, which would in turn lower the price at the pump. Bodman also said that he would support the removal of the tariff on foreign ethanol, but declined to support or comment on various other forms of alternative energy like increasing wind farm productions, because he said they would not create immediate results.