Recommendations for a Cleaner, Greener Energy Future
Key policy recommendations for a Cleaner, Greener Energy Future include:
* Providing multiyear tax incentives for renewable-energy production and energy-efficiency projects.
* Setting national mandates that would require utilities to get at least 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and geothermal energy by 2020.
* Adding and updating the building code to require energy-efficiency measures in the construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings, and setting a goal to reduce buildings' energy use 50 percent by 2030.
* Setting prices for carbon-dioxide emissions and creating a program that caps emissions from different industries and allowing companies to trade emissions allowances.
* Upgrading and expanding the nation's electric grid to enable it to support electric cars and the transport and storage of renewable energy.
* Providing incentives for utilities to invest in energy-efficiency technologies.
* Increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks and investing more money in private-public partnerships that would develop transportation systems that rely on little or no oil, such as electric cars.
* Providing incentives to consumers and small businesses to buy plug-in hybrid cars and alternative fuels, including natural-gas-powered cars.
* Investing more federal dollars in cleantech research and development, including ways to capture and store carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.
* Speeding up the process of setting aside public lands and improving the permitting process for renewable-electricity projects on public lands.
* Shifting from ethanol made from corn to ethanol made from wood chips, agricultural waste and other nonfood feedstock, and encouraging a joint U.S.-Brazil partnership to turn sugar cane into ethanol in the Caribbean.
* Providing multiyear tax incentives for renewable-energy production and energy-efficiency projects.
* Setting national mandates that would require utilities to get at least 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and geothermal energy by 2020.
* Adding and updating the building code to require energy-efficiency measures in the construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings, and setting a goal to reduce buildings' energy use 50 percent by 2030.
* Setting prices for carbon-dioxide emissions and creating a program that caps emissions from different industries and allowing companies to trade emissions allowances.
* Upgrading and expanding the nation's electric grid to enable it to support electric cars and the transport and storage of renewable energy.
* Providing incentives for utilities to invest in energy-efficiency technologies.
* Increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks and investing more money in private-public partnerships that would develop transportation systems that rely on little or no oil, such as electric cars.
* Providing incentives to consumers and small businesses to buy plug-in hybrid cars and alternative fuels, including natural-gas-powered cars.
* Investing more federal dollars in cleantech research and development, including ways to capture and store carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.
* Speeding up the process of setting aside public lands and improving the permitting process for renewable-electricity projects on public lands.
* Shifting from ethanol made from corn to ethanol made from wood chips, agricultural waste and other nonfood feedstock, and encouraging a joint U.S.-Brazil partnership to turn sugar cane into ethanol in the Caribbean.
posted by Bruce Montgomery at
4:38 PM
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