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MAINE VOICES
Energy
bill should focus on renewable sources
Requiring that more of our power needs should be met by
these clean sources would help a lot.
Tracy Allen and Bill Pienta
December 5, 2007
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tracy Allen of Portland
is a program associate with Environment Maine, a state-based environmental
advocacy organization. Bill Pienta of Cheektowaga,
N.Y. is the director for the
Northeastern District of the United Steelworkers union.
— Energy prices and the conflict in the Middle East, combined with growing
concern over the progress of global warming, have jump-started a long-
overdue national conversation about the direction of America's
energy policy.
The public is clamoring for solutions, and there has never been deeper
support for increasing the amount of power we get from renewable energy.
America
is a technologically and economically advanced nation fully capable of
creating an energy system that can fuel our economy while preserving both our
environment and our long- term security.
But, right now, our nation is failing to take advantage of our almost
unlimited potential to generate electricity from renewable sources of energy
like wind and solar power.
The United States
has historically been a leader in the deployment of renewable energy
technologies. As recently as the mid-1990s, we were the world's leaders in
solar power capacity and No. 2 in wind. Unfortunately, that is no longer the
case.
By 2004, Japan had
three times the solar photovoltaic capacity of the United
States, while Germany had more than double the
capacity. And countries with wind resources that are only a fraction of those
in our nation's windiest states employ tens of thousands in their wind-energy
industries.
Fortunately, an expanding number of communities are seeing the local
economic development benefits of renewable energy and pressing the nation
toward a cleaner future.
Farmers and ranchers recognize the benefits renewable energy provides for
agricultural interests and rural economies.
And workers and businesses are beginning to understand that renewable
energy technologies have the potential to create high quality jobs that will
drive our nation into the 21st century.
Already 25 states -- including Maine
-- have passed renewable energy standards of their own, committing nearly
half of our country's population to renewable energy targets as high as 25
percent by 2020.
By creating guaranteed markets for renewable energy, these policies have
helped to jump-start new statewide energy economies, and we are seeing
evidence of the economic benefits.
For example, Pennsylvania's clean energy
standard has spurred investment in wind turbine manufacturing, creating four
plants to assemble wind energy equipment for use in the United States
and bringing Americans back to work on the site of a former steel mill.
As paper mills and manufacturers have too left our state in rapid
succession, investment in clean energy will bring the same potential to
provide Mainers with quality new jobs.
A new report by the Blue Green Alliance and the Renewable Energy Policy
Project found that renewable energy manufacturing could create more than
4,000 new jobs in Maine.
Beyond creating jobs, developing our renewable energy resources will save
consumers money and bolster rural economies.
A recent study the Union of Concerned Scientists found that the national
Renewable Electricity Standard that passed the House of Representatives this
year, requiring 15 percent of electric generation from renewable energy
sources by the year 2020, would save consumers up to $18 billion on their
electricity and natural gas bills in 2020 and that electricity bills would be
lower in every state.
By shifting away from fossil fuels, we can establish a diverse, secure
energy supply while reducing global warming pollution. The UCS analysis
indicates the House standard requiring 15 percent renewable electricity by
2020 would cut global warming pollution by 126 million metric tons by 2020; the
equivalent of taking 20 million cars off the road.
Building on the momentum of the states, it is now time for Congress to act
and pass a final energy bill that includes the renewable electricity
standard. It is critical that the House and Senate include a renewable
electricity standard of at least 15 percent.
By supporting this legislation in the final energy bill, Sens. Olympia
Snowe and Susan Collins can help build a cleaner and more secure economy for
America, while reducing global warming pollution and making the United States
the world's clean energy leader once again.
— Special to the Press Herald
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