Western Governors are thinking about energy
From DailyKos (McJoan is on it again):
Recognizing the key role western states are going to take in the nation’s potential energy revolution, the Western Governors are weighing in with their recommendations for the Obama administration’s national energy policy, and for action that should be taken in the first 100 days.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The governors of the nation’s largest energy-producing states are encouraging President-elect Barack Obama to quickly adopt a national energy policy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The bipartisan Western Governors’ Association has delivered Obama a four-page letter outlining what steps it believes his administration should take in his first 100 days in office to address the issue….
“We must not repeat the mistakes of the past,” says the letter signed by association chairman, Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, and vice chairman, Democratic Gov. Dem Brian Schweitzer of Montana. “The future of our nation depends on it.”
Huntsman said Obama’s administration should listen to the WGA because its 19 states are responsible for 94 percent of the country’s onshore oil reserves, 66 percent of its coal reserves and 100 percent of its installed solar generation….he told The Associated Press.
The WGA is encouraging Obama to improve mass transportation, bring more fuel-efficient and near-zero emission vehicles on to the market and develop renewable resources such as wind and solar energy.
The governors propose an ambitious 100 day plan (pdf, via New West):
- Establish an aggressive and achievable national greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal that will put the United States on a path to contribute to global climate stabilization.
- Propose a mandatory national system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that makes maximum use of market-based mechanisms. Revenue raised should support the energy policy principles in this letter and not be used as a means of sustaining or expanding general governmental operations.
- Aggressively pursue a national energy efficiency program to reduce existing and future energy demand and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Establish an oil import reduction goal that strengthens energy security and independence. Since nearly 90% of oil is used for transportation, propose a plan that
- Brings more fuel efficient and near-zero emission vehicles into the market;
- Increases the supply of domestically produced, low-carbon fuels;
- Minimizes the economic and technological uncertainties inherent in deploying high efficiency vehicles and developing and using nonpetroleum transportation fuels; and
- Reduces vehicle miles travelled and increases mass movement of people and goods.
:
- Create a substantial, long-term national public investment on the scale of tens of billions of dollars annually, and encourage at least the same investment from the private sector, to support the kind of basic and applied research and deployment of clean energy technology and infrastructure that will result in:
- Near-zero greenhouse gas emissions from new coal-fired electricity generation in 10 years and from existing generation no later than 2030;
- Dramatically increased energy from wind, solar, geothermal, hydro and biomass resources;
- Expansion and upgrade of the electricity transmission grid and storage capabilities;
- Advanced vehicle and battery technologies and alternative transportation fuels; and
- Next generation energy efficiency technologies and practices.
- Ensure affordability for lower income energy consumers through energy efficiency and cost assistance programs.
- Provide for workforce development and clean energy jobs, adaptation to climate change impacts, reduced consumer impacts, particularly for low-incomeconsumers, and transition assistance to industries.
The AP is reporting that Huntsman and Schweitzer have already met with John Podesta to promote their proposal. They should carry some weight with the new administration. Even Huntsman, governing one of the nation’s reddest states, has been an active participant in the Western Climate Initiative, an effort of seven western states and four Canadian provinces to reduce greenhouse gases region-wide. It’s an ambitious effort, covering a good third of North America, geographically.
It’s a proposal that should spark the conversation on our new national energy policy.
