Investment in Renewables Will Lead to US Economic Recovery, Leaders Say

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=54078

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Amend the Tax Credits

First, renewable energy industry leaders called for an adjustment to the recently passed renewable energy tax credits. The industry would like to see the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) amended so as to improve its transferability and to make it refundable.

<snip>

Adopt a Federal RPS

Another key policy that the joint associations would like to see immediately put in place is the adoption of a federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that would require 10% of electricity to come from renewables by 2012 and 25% by 2025. Measures such as these have already been set forth in Obama's energy plan. The industry associations urge the 111th Congress to adopt a federal RPS as soon as possible.

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Mandate Renewables for Federal Property

Rhone Resch outlined the fourth critical point that the industry associations are calling for: a federal mandate that all government-owned entities be powered, at least in part, by renewable energy. When Nellis Air Force base installed its 14-megawatt solar energy system, it saved the base more than US $1 million per year, he explained. Renewable energy systems lock-in long-term electric rates that save the taxpayers money.

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Invest US $30 Billion in Renewables

The last proposal that the industry associations are making to the new administration is to front-load its stated goal of investing US $150 billion in clean tech over the next ten years by investing US $30 billion in new project development and installations of renewable energy in the U.S. in 2009.

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[GliderGuider]

1. Lots of "wind" power in this article.

These clowns have no idea how bad the economy is really going to get over the next two years. The gummmint won't have enough money to invest in food stamps, let alone shiny new expensive energy systems.

[phantom power]

2. I think you should get on change.gov, and propose anarcho-primitivism...

Just to make them scratch their primate heads.

[GliderGuider]

4. Why do I think that getting on a .gov and espousing anarchy

would be bad for my ability to cross borders in the future?

[phantom power]

5. Hmm. Maybe, but would that be an insurmountable loss?

North of the 45th parallel may become prime real estate in our lifetimes. All that stuff within 45 degrees of the equator may end up as a sandworm ranch.

[jpak]

3. DOOM DOOOMM!!!1111

:evilgrin:

Bush dug that hole and Obama is going to get us out of it - and yes, renewables will lead the way.

None of those proposals by the US renewable industry carried a show stopping price tag - and all of them would yield rapid and significant economic returns.

[GliderGuider]

6. Humanity has been digging this hole for thousands of years

Bush is just a convenient scapegoat because his power-brokers got too greedy and he let his agenda get too visible. If you'd had nothing but saintly Democrats in power for the last hundred years they might have been able to forestall some aspects of the current situation by maybe another decade or two. We (the global We) were sneaking up on the limits to growth under Democratic and Republican presidents alike. There is diddly-squat Obama can do to save Western civilization, of which the USA is a major component -- reality has tied his hands.

He will make us all feel more confident about our ability and willingness to undertake revolutionary change, and in these circumstances that's worth quite a lot.

[bananas]

7. Bush is just a scapegoat?

Now you're an apologist for Bush?

[GliderGuider]

8. Bush was a stupid, greedy politician

His vanity and arrogance allowed him to be manipulated by the power brokers. He was in many ways a Manchurian candidate.

Western civilization didn't crash in just the last eight years, and while W may have helped the crash along he didn't cause it -- it would have happened a bit later with someone else at the helm. Sorry if I don't demonize him quite as thoroughly as you'd like - to me he's just a stupid, vain, arrogant, venal, destructive politician, not Satan.