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Energy Future Coalition
CLEAN ENERGY CHOICES
Author: Date: 07/06/2003 Page: H10 Section: EditorialPROSPECTS FOR a cleaner energy future in the United States are darkened by the bitter dispute between environmentalists and the Bush administration, which favors greatly expanded drilling for oil and natural gas and denies that climate change is a threat. The two sides have clashed on issues such as tougher standards for auto fuel efficiency and the administration's wish to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These pitched battles have brought the nation no closer to reduced emissions or greater energy independence.
There has to be a better way.
Two advocacy coalitions think there is. One has called for a new "Apollo Project" in which the federal government would commit to clean energy initiatives much as President Kennedy committed to the Apollo moon expedition. Backers of this new Apollo Project see it as a way to mobilize blue-collar workers behind environmental goals that bring good manufacturing jobs with them.
The project's plan for a 10-year, $300 billion program would help build more efficient cars, appliances, industrial motors, and public transit and develop renewable sources of electricity. The project would fund research into hydrogen fuel cells and technology to pump the carbon dioxide emissions of coal-fired power plants back into the ground or ocean. As one of the greenhouse gases, CO2 is a major contributor to global warming.
Instead of focusing on regulations to force the auto industry to improve fuel economy, the Apollo Project would help automakers produce hybrid and eventually hydrogen cars at prices that attract buyers. The project has won the support of unions representing workers in the steel, auto, electrical, mining, and transit industries, among others.
A separate group, the Energy Future Coalition, began working after Sept. 11, 2001, to come up with proposals for clean, less import-dependent energy that are similar to Project Apollo's but rely more on market-based solutions. The coalition includes representatives from past Democratic and Republican administrations as well as business, labor, and environmental groups.
Recognizing that any US gains in reducing greenhouse gases could easily be eclipsed by carbon-producing industrialization in the developing world, the Energy Future Coalition focuses on ensuring that developing countries have ready and affordable access to new, clean technologies.
Both the Apollo Project group and the Energy Future Coalition differ from the Bush administration and the authors of the two versions of the energy bill now before Congress on one point in particular: They take seriously the threat of climate change to the globe's ecosystems. Between the Apollo Project and the Energy Future Coalition there are enough good ideas to build a clean energy program for the 21st century.