Renewable energy can IMPROVE our economy...

Today’s post: Wednesday, 11-26-2008

1. First, burning fossil fuels is already harming our economy, our health, and our entire world’s environment.

And, it will act as an increasingly worse brake on our economy the longer we continue to do it. So, developing abundant renewable energy to replace that will begin to remove that brake. This alone will improve our economy.

Thanks to Al Gore’s groups email with the heads-up & opportunity to make public comment on the issue, I just send the following message to the EPA.:

“Dear Administrator Johnson and EPA staff:

I urge you to take immediate action and rule that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants clearly "endanger the public health and welfare" and thus should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution is the primary cause of the climate crisis.

The future costs of overcoming the effects for CO2-driven global warming threaten our economy. This includes huge & increased costs for continuing our food production. The repeat, likely when the current economic slowdown ends, of worldwide bidding up the cost of fossil fuels threatens our economy. The potential for economic collapse when oil runs out looks very real.

Burning coal for generating electricity has now reached such a large size that it threatens the agricultural production and health of about half the earth already!

Meanwhile, it's clearly possible to build solar photovoltaic and solar thermal and wind generation of electric power to 200 % of the world's total current energy use by about 30 years from now.

However, fossil fuels do NOT yet have the real cost of their economic & environmental costs added to their cost to use for fuel. This makes the renewable sources it has become imperative we switch to, close to 100 % less competitive than they already should be.

These facts mean that it is also imperative to regulate the burning of carbon base fuels and the emission of carbon dioxide that results.

(It's also clear than carbon fuels should soon be taxed in some fashion for these same reasons.)

Please rule that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants clearly "endanger the public health and welfare" and thus should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. And, vigorously regulate these pollutants. Start slow if you need to do so. But act now to create the authority to do so.”

2. If we increase the amount of solar photovoltaics on every building with an appropriate roof and on a roof over most parking lots; AND we build solar photovoltaic farms in locations throughout the United States and the world; we also build solar thermal farms in locations throughout the United States and the world; we install nearly that much more wind generation of electricity; & we install the new electricity distribution grid to support getting that electricity to where it will be used, we can easily generate 200 % of our current energy use from these renewable sources within 30 years.

If we also become dramatically more energy efficient, particularly in the United States, we will have close to three times the usable energy we do now from these renewable sources.

Yes, that will create jobs in building and installing this new energy source. And it will also enable us to cut our use of fossil fuels to near zero, particularly when we also get cost effective biofuels to replace most of the remaining uses of gas & liquid fuels.

But the very large and sustainable INCREASE in renewable energy and effective energy use well above today’s levels won’t just be a safe substitute for fossil fuels and a near term job creator, it will power a very real prosperity.

It’s not widely known; but the amount of effective energy use in an economy is very close to being 100 % the same as the real size of that economy. So this achievable increase in our effective use of energy and energy generation will indeed create prosperity, not just avoid economic disaster.

3. Now is the time to take action to begin to make fossil fuels too restricted and expensive to use AND to create this massive increase in renewable energy.

Many scientists say we must start now or inherit disaster because we did not.

Right no the current economic crisis has slowed the burning of fossil fuels which gives us a bit more time; and makes the new jobs needed soon a real opportunity to create new jobs in renewable energy as a badly needed solution to our current downturn.

Last week, I wrote this in that week’s post.:

“It does help some that overcoming the financial crisis and creating new jobs are now so important because of the faltering economy – because, jobs in energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy can help to solve this problem. Enthusiastic people working on worthwhile new projects that then begin to work well creates prosperity. This process now may happen enough in renewable and clean energy to lift the entire economy.

One thing I do think Obama’s new administration needs to do is to provide extremely strong positive incentives for switching to or creating renewable energy first; have cap and trade tried in a state or two, and have a plan B and a plan C ready to go if in that state or states energy costs increase at rates that cause economic problems or problems with energy supply develop.

It IS totally clear that adding the REAL environmental costs of burning fossil fuels needs to be forced into the market price of burning those fuels by governments world-wide over the next few decades. Simply put, it’s imperative that we do this enough to power the switch to clean renewables as fast as we possibly can. We need to make renewables MORE affordable and turn off using the damaging burning of fossil fuels for energy as fast as we can without damaging the overall economy while making the transition.

But, the simulation I read about of an operating model of a Cap & Trade system ran up energy costs too fast for the economy to adapt to because of people gaming the system for short term financial gains. So, although a version of Cap & Trade may work eventually, we need to be very careful of trying Cap & Trade systems without the mechanism set up in advance to tweak them or replace them with direct taxes that ramp up in a more controlled, albeit rapid, fashion.

Something very like this happened recently in California where I live when the deregulation of the production and sale of electric power generation was tried. We had utilities going bankrupt; rolling blackouts; a sharp increase in the costs of producing electricity; and some unethical types getting rich by gaming the system.

When the whole US economy is at stake, and given the impact of the US economy on the world economy and the current downturn, I think we need to try some smaller experimental Cap & Trade systems before we try it nation-wide.

This is an area of the switch to renewable energy that will be challenging to do well. And, I hope the Obama Administration handles it well.”

If we add dramatically more renewable energy AND gradually make burning fossil fuels a much more expensive and inconvenient alternative, the changes we need and the sustainable prosperity we all want will happen.