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.

Power lines: What the Senate is doing to ensure Americans have electricity

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

The Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources met today to discuss the means by which Americans have access to electricity across the nation through a modernized transmission system, sometimes called the Smart Grid. Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said that the nation’s transmission system has not kept up technologically with both the energy potentials before us and the sheer volume of electricity flowing through it. Also concerning was the fact that regionally based renewable energies, such as solar power in the Southwest or wind energy in the Midwest, cannot efficiently be transmitted across the nation to areas that might need that energy. Ranking Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said, “We can generate all the electricity from wind and other renewable sources we want, but it doesn’t do us any good if we don’t have the capacity to get it to consumers.” Murkowski said that, “by 2013, the EIA projects a 30% increase in U.S. electricity demand, but the transmission has only grown 6.5% since 1996.” Given this, she said, “It’s understandable that our transmission isn’t adequate to meet our future energy needs.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) testified before the committee, but said that in the past 10 years, the U.S. has developed over 6,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, and less than 600 miles of new electrical lines. “We’ve got a problem” Reid said. He likened the national transmission system to the railroad network across the country or the national highway system, because it would provide a uniform means of connecting the nation.

While testifying, Senator Reid said that he is introducing a bill, S. 539, which would have the president designate national areas of renewable energy and establish a structure for linking that with the nation. The proposed legislation would create a federal back-stop transmission citing authority, which would give the federal government the power to place power lines where necessary. It would also give the FERC the ability to move along siting projects which have stalled in one way or another. Reid said the bill gives states authority to move forward on their own in developing the infrastructure, but gives the federal government the power to step in if progress is not made. This bill is similar to the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which gave the Department of Energy the power to designate National Transmission Corridors across the nation in especially congested areas of electricity flow. Senator Murkowski’s office said that to date, not one transmission line has been sited pursuant to the 2005 Act, prompting the additional legislation.

Pickens is for “everything that is American”

At a hearing today in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, T. Boone Pickens, founder and CEO of BP Capital Management, spoke out in support of alternative energy. Pickens unveiled his “Picken’s Plan” which focuses on capturing the abundant domestic renewable energy resources to reduce the role of imported oil in the United States. Pickens supports every available means to use American resources instead of foreign oil such as wind, solar, natural gas, drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf.

The United States currently imports approximately 70 percent of its oil from nations who aren’t always friendly towards the U.S., which is a recipe for national disaster, Pickens said. His plan calls for investing in power generation from domestic renewable resources such as wind and using the abundant American supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel. Pickens said that 22 percent of electrical energy can be gained from wind power in the Great Plains regions. Building up wind energy in that region will also revitalize rural America and jump start the economy.

Pickens called the government to action in supporting the plan, give a 10 year extension on Production Tax Credits, which will allow private enterprises to invest in renewable energy. The current energy crisis was recently compared to the space race of 30 years ago by former vice-president Al Gore, and if the U.S. could put a man on the moon then it should be able to invest in renewable, American energy, he said. “I am for everything that is American” and “I only have one enemy and that is foreign oil,” Pickens said.

Senator Reid offers serious solutions to the rising energy costs

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing today on the challenges and regional solutions to developing transmission for renewable electricity resources. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made a statement before the committee, discussing the bill he introduced, S-2067, which directs the President to identify and designate zones where renewable energy resources can generate at least 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

Reid’s bill will also provide new financing options for building transmission lines and connecting remote renewable energy zones to the grid. Renewable energy companies cannot always afford to pay up front for new transmission lines and the costs of connecting to them. Reid said his bill "is a serious effort to find solutions to the challenges of our energy security and global warming problems,” and offers funding for private companies to invest in renewable energy solutions.

Also present at the hearing was Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability at the Department of Energy. According to the Energy Information Administration estimates that by the year 2030, U.S electricity consumption will increase by almost 30 percent from the 2006 level. Kolevar said this opens up a new demand on electricity generations and that our nation can increase production from wind, solar, nuclear and coal generation to meet the need.

T. Boone Pickens, chairman and CEO of BP Capital, spoke in favor of wind energy development. Even though Pickens made his fortune off of oil, he said today that “we must develop and promote every available domestic energy resource to solve this crisis” and that private enterprise will invest money of Congress adopts clear, predictable policies. Pickens said that natural gas is the second largest energy resource in the country, and if the natural gas the U.S. is using for electrical generation is moved to transportation, the U.S. can replace 38 percent of our foreign oil imports.