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Come clean: Push is on for meaningful, smart energy legislation

By Heather Clancy | Feb 1, 2010 |

If you’re looking for an education on what clean energy could mean for your business or for your community over the next 10 years, this is the week to accelerate your research. That’s because roughly 100 organizations representing renewable energy development, energy efficiency programs and environmental groups have declared it to be Clean Energy Week.

What this means, primarily, is a big public push for clean energy policy, such as the type outlined in the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last summer. The bill is up for consideration by the Senate, but it’s not the only one vying for attention. There are actually more than 30 different pieces of legislation that exist or are up for consideration that have something to do with clean tech or clean energy policy. And there’s a whole lot of lobbying going on in Washington this week on behalf of those various laws.

The arguments in support of such policy from the clean energy advocates are pretty much what you would expect: That clean energy is not only good for the environment, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1 billion over the next decade, but that it could create upwards of 1.9 million jobs.

Pretty much any quote you pick from the organization’s press release fits the bill in support of these themes, but I especially like this one from Reed Hundt, co-chairman of the Coalition for the Green Bank (a clean energy financing/funding mechanism) and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission:

“As the president made clear in his State of the Union address, a focus on green jobs is the immediate focus for the clean energy sector, and in fact by promoting the double whammy of clean energy generation and transmission along with energy efficiency, literally millions of fine new jobs can be created over the next several years.”

Hmmm. Probably the most useful link for both you and I on the Clean Energy Week web site, is the listing to all the local and national partners who are focused on clean energy issues. Let’s see how much noise they can generate in Washington this week and whether or not clean energy can steal a few headlines from healthcare reform.

 
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  •  
    1

    LarryPTL

    02/02/10 | Report as spam

    Is Congress going to micromanage or do the right thing?

    Congress can sometimes act like a committee - an organization with 535 mouths but no head. They need to set high level goals, and not micromanage things.

    When I write high level system specifications, I have to constantly remind myself that I am telling the design engineers what to do, not how to do it. Congress must do the same thing or they are going to lock us into a path that may, at the time the regulations and laws are written, seem okay but turn out to be the wrong path in the long run.

  •  
    2

    lewis2005@...

    02/02/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Come clean: Push is on for meaningful, smart energy legislation

    The American people have said no to Cap and Trade. Polls suggest there are insufficient votes in the Senate. How can the SEC require corporations that will be adversely affected to pretend the will of the people has already been trampled by special interests?
    Cap & Trade is being forced on us because it creates a multi-trillion dollar commodity market. The beneficiaries are special interest who will set up the exchanges and trade in hot house gases and companies expecting federal subsidies to create alternative fuels and transportation.
    But citizens will pay more taxes and more for goods as business passes the cost along.
    And all this based on global warming theories proposed by scientists dependent on proving their theories in order to continue receiving federal grant money. The American people have suffered for decades with the political STD Gonorrhea Lectim. It is time for the cure: votemoutofthere!

  •  
    3

    lewis2005@...

    02/02/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Come clean: Push is on for meaningful, smart energy legislation

    America has natural gas and coal in abundance and does not need to send billions to countries that sponsor terrorism. Every billion in trade deficit equals 13,000 jobs lost.

    SO WHO BENEFITS FROM CAP AND TRADE AND KEEPING AMERICAN COAL IN THE GROUND?

    The United States agreed to transfer jobs and technology to developing countries under INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT Algiers Declaration Algiers, Algeria, 4-6 March 1975

    In this context, they emphasize the necessity for the full implementation of the Programme of Action adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its VI Special Session, and accordingly they emphasize the following requirements

    A major portion of the planned or new petrochemical complexes, oil refineries and fertilizer plants be built in the territories of OPEC Member Countries with the co-operation of industrialized nations for export purposes to the developed countries with guaranteed access for such products to the markets of these countries

  •  
    4

    JTF243@...

    02/02/10 | Report as spam

    "Come Clean" is right!

    And who was it that just gave Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company, $8 BILLION to develop their newly found oilfield off their coast in the South Atlantic?
    And who is the biggest single investor in Petrobras, who will benefit from our government's grant? The one and only, George Soros, campaign contributor to the Zero and "chief instigator" behind MoveOn.
    Now, we will be buying our oil not only from the Arabs but from the Brazilians as well as this oil will be mainly for export!! They mostly use ETHANOL made from their sugar industry residues!

  •  
    5

    Sagax-

    02/02/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Come clean: Push is on for meaningful, smart energy legislation

    My greatest fear is that the SMART will be left out. Remember the old saying: "No man's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session."

  •  
    6

    Wirelessdude

    02/26/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Come clean: Push is on for meaningful, smart energy legislation

    "Clean" energy has no real meaning. There is always a cost to the environment. Trading wind electricity and paying more for it than say hydro electric is silly. The dams are already in place, if wind or solar were the answer, capitalism would already be making money in those areas. Coal is a poor choice. Geothermal, wind and solar look promising. Got to get the government out of the way and not subsidize areas that are not renewable.

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Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist in the New York area with more than 20 years experience covering the high-tech industry. She has a passion for green IT and regularly covers business technology issues and trends. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.

Clancy previously was editor at Computer Reseller News, the leading B2B trade publication covering news and trends about high-tech channels of distribution. In that role, she set editorial direction and led a staff of close to 30.

While at CRN, Clancy was the featured speaker on dozens of video netseminars, covering a wide range of topics including Software as a Service, managed services, convergence, IT security, mobile computing and high-tech channel program strategy. She has moderated numerous conference panel discussions and roundtables, and frequently was rated the top session facilitator at CMP Media's XChange conferences.

Prior to joining CRN, Clancy was a business writer with United Press International, where she covered everything from corporate mergers to the early days of the high-tech industry. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and is a graduate of the Stanford Professional Publishing Course.

Heather Clancy

I'm sure cynical investigative reporters would discover that my lifestyle is about as sustainable as the average American, which is to say not so much. But I try. Really hard. Honest. And writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to the effort. I’m also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My freelance hours are focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains, and writing articles for mainstream publication. I also contribute articles and blogs about VARs, resellers and systems integrators that deploy IT solutions for media company Tech Target. Occasionally, I’ll pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, this will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My consulting activities include a relationship with SWOT Management Group, a firm in New Jersey that provides high-tech channel strategy and sales engagement insight to high-tech vendors. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I’m covering in my blog.

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an author and independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. Joe is also SOA community manager for ebizQ, and speaks frequently on Enterprise 2.0 and SOA topics at industry events and Webcasts. He also serves as lead analyst and author of Evans Data Corp.'s highly regarded bi-annual SOA/Web Services and Web 2.0 surveys. Joe writes a regular column for Database Trends & Applications, and has authored numerous research reports in partnership with Unisphere Research for user groups such as SHARE, Oracle Applications Users Group, and International DB2 Users Group. In a previous life, Joe served as director of the Administrative Management Society (AMS), an international professional association dedicated to advancing knowledge within the IT and business management fields.

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant and editor. Joe has performed project work for the following companies in the IT marketspace: IBM, Systinet/HP, Teradata. He has performed project work for the following organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research (Unisphere Media): IBM, Oracle Corp., International Oracle Users Group, Oracle Applications Users Group, Professional Association for SQL Server, International DB2 Users Group, International Sybase Users Group.

Business Brains focuses on management issues that revolve around the key question: How do I make my business, family, and coworkers smarter? The blog examines the management issues facing a variety of businesses and debunks the technology you need to know

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