By Dennis Markatos-Soriano, Sustainable Energy Transition Founder
Tuesday, November 4th, brought a huge shift to the US political landscape. The Obama landslide opens up an opportunity to update our energy policy for 21st century leadership. After eight years of stagnant federal climate change engagement, the Obama Administration promises no less than a sustainable energy revolution that moves our country toward climate responsibility.
But, as always, effective civic engagement from organizations like Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) and its allies will be necessary to ensure such progress occurs. The good news is, with your help, SET is poised to contribute to American leadership on climate change. We will need to rise to the occasion on the following three challenges over the next four years.
Challenge #1: Preventing a Rush to Coal
Our country is rich in coal resources. Our reserves roughly equal the combined total of the world’s next top countries, Russia and China. And with oil and natural gas prices more than double their 2002 level, there will be pressure to substitute some of that energy with domestic coal.
But increased coal consumption has serious environmental consequences. The main threat of coal, on top of air and water pollution from mercury and sulfur dioxide, is that it releases more carbon dioxide per energy unit than all other fossil fuels.
Obama’s home state of Illinois is a major producer of coal and Obama/Biden have supported the use of “clean coal” throughout the campaign. But clean coal is more of a PR term than a reality today. Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) [the idea that we can take the carbon from coal’s emissions and bury it in the ground for centuries] has not yet been deployed commercially — so it cannot be seen as a first-term option for Obama except on a pilot project scale. Coal companies will put pressure on Obama to support new coal plants, but civil society must raise a strong enough voice to prevent such a move unless these plants are CCS plants. The US could benefit tremendously if we advance CCS technology toward rapid deployment throughout the world (we could export CCS technology along with the fuel – an extremely lucrative potential in a carbon-constrained world).
Challenge #2: Maintaining progress on conservation & efficiency with sub-$2.50 gasoline
With pump prices below $2.50 per gallon for gasoline and approaching $3 for diesel, public support for fuel efficiency may wane from its highs last summer. As a result, Big 3 automakers may revert to their old identity as producers of gas-guzzlers (which was very profitable until recently) and resist more aggressive fuel efficiency standards for their products. Such a move would be woefully short-sighted as the cheap oil age is coming to a close and today’s lower prices are mostly the result of recessionary lower demand. Prices are likely to rise once the economy turns around and oil supply stagnation rears its head in 2010+, especially if US consumers go back to SUVs and trucks like before 2008.
Again, it will take an active civil society to help the Obama Administration and Democratic Congress have the backbone to stay focused on efficiency and other climate-friendly alternative transportation methods. Just look at the Clinton Administration, with climate champion, Nobel laureate Vice President Gore. Under their watch, fuel efficiency actually fell as their federal government-automaker partnership ended up supporting US vehicles growing larger and faster rather than getting any greener.
Challenge #3: Keeping their eyes on the long-term climate prize
The Administration has inherited a double whammy of recession and huge fiscal deficit/massive public debt. The short-term economic pain will be a strong influence on policy, as it should be. But civil society must help politicians keep the long-term threat of climate change high in the public (and thus political) consciousness to ensure our country addresses this critical issue of the 21st century. If we drag our feet through the first administration, it may get too late to prevent runaway global warming and its dangerous symptoms.
I call it the climate prize for a reason. Not only are the long-term costs of climate inaction high, but the medium-term benefits of action are great. The US can create millions of jobs, making our economy more efficient and utilizing the plentiful wind of our Great Plains and sunshine of our Southwest to lower dependence on foreign oil. After developing these solar, wind and other climate-friendly technologies, we can export them to the huge markets of the EU, Asia and beyond that will demand such clean tech in our carbon-constrained future.
The best way to begin our transformation to global climate leader is to pass an economy-wide cap and trade system in 2009. Such a system would set annual caps on emissions (like 1990 levels in 2020, falling to 80% below today’s emissions by 2050) and allow companies and institutions to trade emission permits to minimize the cost of the emissions reduction. The Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats are committed to such a program, but public pressure is critical to make sure it becomes law. A similar cap-and-trade system, passed under the first Bush Administration, has helped us significantly reduce acid rain caused by sulfur dioxide-belching coal plants. This bipartisan precedent may prove crucial to prevent a Senate filibuster of the bill. A climate cap and trade bill passed in 2009 would put us on the right track and give post-Kyoto international negotiators the message that the US is ready to lead again.
It is wonderful to have an Administration that consistently calls climate-friendly energy policy a top priority. The $150 billion promised over the next 10 years to further progress innovation in the clean tech sector can transform America from a dependent, crippled consumer to a prosperous leader in the future global energy order. Only if we turn up our efforts of public education and advocacy will we accomplish our goal of responsible federal climate policy.
Progressive philanthropists, you showed your financial support can help push change in an election. Now those of us from Sustainable Energy Transition to Environmental Defense Fund to Transportation Alternatives need you to support a strong enough climate civil society to ensure these new leaders achieve their potential. Just like the election of 2008, the stakes are too high for any of us to sit this one out. The stability of our climate depends on US political will to seize today’s opportunity and build a sustainable energy revolution that creates jobs, lowers costs, and frees our country from the shackles of foreign oil dependence.
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Tags: climate change, Coal, election 2008, energy, Obama, Oil, Solar, Wind