Clean energy economy is a national issue

Simply put, we are fading, fast. Just this week, Vice President Biden was speaking at the Mayflower Hotel when he rhetorically asked the audience, “Wouldn’t it be ironic if we freed ourselves of the dependence on foreign oil simply to become dependent on foreign sources of clean energy and technologies?”

The Vice President also stated, “The entire energy policy will fail for lack of a political consensus. The world is already transitioning to a new energy economy, and we’ve got a long way to go to catch up.”

What more of a wakeup call do we need?  President Obama invested historic amounts in the clean energy economy in the Recovery Act and the Vice President continues to tout the need for a clean energy revolution.  Despite this, Senate negotiators are debating the validity of climate change and how to provide maximum tax credits to hydrocarbons. At the end of the day, looking for that very last drop of oil, we are going to end up drilling all the way to China, only to find wind turbines and solar panels and a thriving economy.

Instead, we should drill and mine energy efficiency the way we are so gluttonously dependent on drilling for oil and mining coal.  By making energy efficiency our fuel of choice, we address our demand-side energy management instead of solely focusing on supply-side options.  We would not only reduce our energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gases, but would go a long way toward bringing well-paying, technically inclined careers back to the United States.

The Vice President announced a $40 million grant from the Recovery Act that will ramp-up energy efficiency renovation programs in New York State, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, an agency where I previously served as President/CEO.  This was one of 25 grants worth a total of over $450 million awarded nationwide under the Department of Energy’s Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative.  These projects will be leveraged with $2.8 billion dollars from private sector funds.

However, the most telling statistic is the funding requested in the applications versus the amount awarded, $3.5 billion compared to $450 million.  There clearly exists pent up marketplace demand for energy efficiency, which is why I was pleased to see the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, introduced by my colleague Rep. Peter Welch, pass out of the Energy and Commerce Committee on April 15, 2010.  This bill will provide six billion dollars designed to spur home energy renovations by providing direct incentives to homeowners to install American-made energy-saving products and conduct whole-home renovations.  It has the support of over 1,000 small and large businesses and organizations.

The clean energy economy is a national issue that I have been comparing to Sputnik for a long time.  Decades ago, our country was inspired by a youthful President, John F. Kennedy, to challenge the Russians in the Space Race to the moon.  The leadership and shared vision of that President inspired a generation committed to science, technology, engineering and math.  Because of that dedication, we won.  We won the Space Race.
We are losing the Clean Energy Race. For the first time, China assumed the top spot for overall clean energy finance and investment in 2009, overtaking the United States.  Last year, China invested $34.6 billion in the clean energy space, while the United States invested $18.6 billion, a distant second. Our nation ranked 11th among G-20 nations for 2009 clean energy investment intensity, or clean energy investment as a percentage of gross domestic product.  The United States was outpaced by other countries with policy frameworks in place, such as Spain, China, Brazil, Canada, Germany and even Mexico. 

We face a similar set of circumstances today as we did during the Space Race.  Four decades later, a youthful President has challenged us to lead the global energy revolution, because the fact of the matter is; we are being passed-by.  However, in the Clean Energy Race, there are many more participants, and the economic stakes are even higher than they were in the Cold War.  Today, more than ever, we must heed the President’s inspirational call; to once again lead the world in innovation and energy jobs, for future generations of Americans – workers and consumers alike – are depending on us.   

Rep. Tonko is a freshman member of the House Science and Technology as well as Education and Labor Committees as well as a Vice Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition or SEEC.