Energy Biz - March/April 2008 - (Page 84) » lEGal EaGlE presidential Energy Dance candIdaTeS aTTempT To defIne enerGy poLIcIeS by darreLL deLamaIde on climAte chAnge, Both issues arising from dependence on foreign oil, particularly the vulnerability to a terrorist attack. Like the economy itself, energy does not seem to be a strong point for the Arizona senator, some observers say. Nonetheless, McCain cites many of the same solutions as his Democratic rivals — improved light bulbs, smart grid technology, energy savings — concluding that “government must set achievable goals, but the markets should be free to produce the means.” Regardless of which Democratic hopeful ends up with the nomination, candidate McCain will differentiate his energy policy from theirs through the level of government intervention. Obama’s detailed plan, by contrast, ticks off numerous areas in which government will get Barack Obama involved. He plans, for starters, to invest sOurcE: aP/sETh WEnig $150 billion over 10 years in energy reform. Part of this money will go to transportation — the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure and the commercialization of plug-in hybrids. But the focus is also on development of commercial-scale renewable energy, investments in low-emission coal plants, and transition to a new digital electricity grid. The fund will seek to make sure that technologies developed in the United States are rapidly commercialized and deployed both here and around the world. To help develop these innovative technologies, the Obama plan calls for a clean technologies venture capital fund in which the government will invest $10 billion a year for five years. The fund will partner with existing investment funds and the national laboratories to ensure that promising technologies move beyond the lab. The Democratic hopeful would establish a federal renewable portfolio standard to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the United energy utilities say they will. States be derived from clean, sustainable energy Sen. John McCain, the sources, such as solar, wind and geothermal, by the year likely Republican candidate, 2025. At the same time, he would significantly increase pledged a “market-based the resources devoted to the commercialization and energy reform” in the conserdeployment of low-carbon coal technologies. If that would vative mold, one that would mean establishing standards that ban new traditional coal “not rely on subsidies, rifleshot tax breaks, line-items for facilities, then he would consider that possibility. With regard to energy efficiency, new buildings should lobbyists, or big-government be carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030, debacles.” As a conseaccording to the Obama plan. As president, Obama quence, the McCain Web said he would establish a national goal of improving new site doesn’t offer detailed white papers like those found building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help on the Clinton and Obama meet the 2030 goal. And he would create a competitive sites, but just a speech on grant program to reward states and localities that impleenergy policy from April. And ment new building codes prioritizing energy efficiency. He that speech focuses largely would also pursue a major investment in the utility grid to on the national security Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton espouse a cap-and-trade emissions program with an auction of 100 percent of emission credits so that “all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release,” as the Obama plan puts it. The objective in both senators’ plans is to get emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama said he will reach his objective by changing the terms of the debate, and getting voter buy-in for making the kind of short-term sacrifices to deal with climate change. And he would explain to them that their energy costs won’t have to go up nearly as much as NewsFlash PennsYLvania coMPetition Pennsylvania needs competitive energy markets and should avoid rate freezes, according to a new report. Susan F. Tierney, an expert on energy policy at the Analysis Group and author of the report, said, “Policy makers should heed the lessons learned in other states when rate freezes were imposed at levels out of line with market conditions.’’ 84 E n E rgyB i z March/April 2008 http://www.energycentral.com
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