Green Energy Policy Outlook
Over the last decade soaring gasoline and natural gas prices have brought in focus, again and again, the role of green energy – in other words renewable energy – in providing electricity, replacing fossil fuel use, and curbing the growing craze for power transmission equipment. But in terms of awareness, adoption and implementation of green energy imperatives, the United States, in a substantial measure, lagged behind the West European counterparts and Japan, who took giant strides in implementing green energy technologies and policies. Unfortunately, America is ranked as low as the 22nd energy efficient counties.
Surprisingly, since the early seventies our electricity consumption had tripled. Our ineffective middle-east policies and oil-politics, had thrust us in perpetual war-games, and made us nonchalant about the impending long-run hazards of mankind. Also, the responsibility of failure rests on partisanship, special interest advocacy groups and ineffective political rhetorics of the past regime. During pre-election campaign President Obama had been very critical about our flawed energy policies, and his much-advertized vision for energy policy had placed the significance and exigency of green energy policies at the forefront.
His draft policy substantially emphasized the salient efficacies of the renewable energy. While emphasizing the the importance of green energy, he was poignantly observant about the result of climatic degradation and the alarming issues like shrinking polar ice-caps making sea levels to rise, extreme weather conditions wreaking global havoc, severe recurrent droughts, the menace of migrating tropical diseases and the log-term threat of sheer extinction of numerous species. In this article, I would like to recap the policy directions he thought about. The green energy solutions, he propagated in his campaign had two dimensions – the short-term and the mid-to-long-term initiatives.
The short-term solutions, as propagated by President Obama in his campaign, focus basically on providing some immediate relief to the consumers from soaring energy costs. He talked about extending emergency energy rebate to the households “by requiring the oil companies to take reasonable share of their record- breaking windfall profits and use it to provide direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a married couple.”Other short-term prescriptions included initiation of regulatory measures to plug the loopholes in Commodity Futures Trading Commission, so as to control excessive oil-price speculation. The campaign also recommended to “swap light and heavy crude, release oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to cut process.”
The mid-to-long-term solutions outlined in the campaign release, emphasized heavily on adoption and implementation of green energy .The areas of emphasis encompassed “two major energy challenges -our dependence on foreign oil and global climate change – both of which stem from our current dependence on fossil fuels for energy.” On enhancing self-reliance on energy and tackling climatic change, the measures propagated, include (i) Implementation of an economy-wide cap-and-trade system to significantly reduce carbon emissions (ii) Invest in the green energy future and creating about 5 million new jobs in related areas,(iii)Making vehicles energy efficient,(iv)Increase the supply of domestic energy,(v) Diversify our sources of energy, with primary emphasis on green energy sources, and finally (vi) Promote commitment to energy efficiency with a view to lowering energy usage and costs. The campaign had some great things on green energy initiatives. it stated that a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) would be set up to require that 10 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from green energy- i.e. clean, sustainable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal by 2012.We noticed his strong advocacy for developing and deploying clean coal technology, because Carbon capture and storage technologies hold enormous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we propel our economy with domestically produced green energy. It outlined the need for developing the next generation of sustainable bio-fuels and providing suitable infrastructure for bio-energy growth. It recognized, “advances in bio-fuels, including cellulosic ethanol,biobutenol and other new technologies that produce synthetic petroleum from sustainable feed stocks offer tremendous potential to break our addiction to oil.” Now, any green-energy advocate , irrespective of any party color, may raise the question- what is the progress, or where the current administration stands in terms of fulfilling the promises? The answer is, now it is too early for performance analysis. There is definitely a laundry-list of priorities that the current administration is exhaustively engaged in. It obviously includes,as the primary focus, the gigantic tasks of reforming the banking and financial sectors to arrest the economic down-turn. The next is the healthcare reform which is currently gaining heavy momentum, with Obama spearheading and pushing hard on it. But truly, energy policy reform does occupy a significant position in the list of priorities. We can patiently wait and see.
About the Author
Green Energy Solutions
|
|
P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor $50.00 Empowers You to Save Hundreds on Electric Bills Electricity bills are rising. Now you can cut down on costs and find out what appliances are actually worth keeping plugged in. Simply connect these appliances to the Kill A Watt, and it will assess how efficient they really are. The large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as your local utility. You can calculate your elec… |
|
|
Smart Strip SCG3 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology $20.00 7 outlets feature 1 “control” outlet 4 outlets that are switched on or off by the control outlet and 2 “constant hot” outlets1250 joules of surge protection Provides 4-way 6000V and 37500A protection Offers up to 30dB line noise reduction and superior EMI/RFI filtering 6′ cord… |
|
|
Feit Electric ESL13T/G 13-Watt Compact Fluorescent Mini Twist Bulb (60-Watt Incandescent Equivalent), Green $5.29 Create an atmosphere of fun and responsibility with this energy efficient green CFL ECObulb. It uses only 13 watts. Please note: do not use with dimming devices. From Feit Electric…. |
|
|
MIO Green Thunder, 1.62-Ounce (Pack of 4) $14.88 … |
|
|
Gatorade Propel Zero Powder Sticks Grape, 10-Count (Pack of 6) $22.99 Pack of 6…. |
|
|
Tang Orange Powdered Drink Mix (Makes 6 Quarts), 20-Ounce Canisters (Pack of 6) $19.88 Tang, Orange Powdered Drink Mix (Makes 6 Quarts), 20 Ounce Canister (Pack of 6)… |
|
|
Tripp Lite INTERNET750U Internet Office 750VA Compact UPS (12 Outlets) $148.50 Tripp Lite’s INTERNET750U standby UPS offers plete protection for PCs workstations and other sensitive electronics in an attractive ultra-pact mountable housing. Prevents data loss and system downtime by providing battery-supported AC output during brownouts and blackouts.Primary InformationPower Device Type : UPS UPS Technology : Standby Voltage Provided&… |
|
|
Duracell 813-0807 800 Watt DC to AC Digital Power Inverter $37.99 The Duracell 813-0807 800-Watt DC to AC Digital Power Inverter is designed to allow for easy and convenient conversion of the DC power generated by your car’s 12-volt battery into AC power. Connecting through your vehicle’s cigarette lighter adapter port or other DC power ports, it provides enough power to operate a diverse range of electronics, appliances and tools, such as a laptop, cell phone… |
|
|
Tripp Lite TLP604 6-Outlet Surge Protector (790 Joules, 4ft Cord) $5.69 TRIPP LITE TRIPP LITE PROTECT IT TLP604 – SURGE SUPPRESSOR – EXTERNAL – 6 OUTPUT CONNECTOR(… |
|
|
National Geographic: Plan It Green $0.01 Co-produced by National Geographic and tied to its real-world initiatives such as GREENGUIDE Capitalizes on the momentum of the Green movement and engages players in ways that make them feel like they can effect a significant difference. Bee the Mayor of Greenville clean up the city and transform it into a fresh thriving eco-munity. Use the latest “green” technology to get the job done! Plan It Gr… |
