Senate Inaction Cedes U.S. Energy Race to China

August 3rd, 2010
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Right now the U.S. Senate is conducting a master class on the perils of legislation by rearview mirror. On July 27, when Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled the “Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act,” the two most powerful clean energy provisions were missing: a cap on carbon emissions from the electric power sector and a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which would require utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021.

By Eric Pooley

For years, business leaders from General Electric Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt  to venture capitalist John Doerr have warned that if America failed to pass a comprehensive climate-and-energy bill, the country risked losing the clean energy race to China — sacrificing the jobs of the future in a timid, ill-fated effort to preserve the jobs of the past. Now those warnings are coming true.

Clean energy advocates were angry but not surprised on July 22, when Reid said he was pulling the plug on the carbon cap. Powerful utilities were withholding support. President Barack Obama wasn’t trying to forge a compromise. And key Democratic senators had no appetite for a bill that might cause a modest, short-term increase in electricity prices — potentially endangering some 20th century manufacturing jobs — even if it helps create many more 21st-century jobs by making clean energy competitive with coal.

The disappearance of the renewable energy standard, however, was a shock. Both the House and Senate have passed RES bills in the past, yet it has never become law. With elections looming, this may be the last chance for years to set the rules of the road for energy investment.

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Filed Under: ARCHIVES • Feature Articles • Policy

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  1. Comment by cogeo on 5 August 2010:

    Our elected officials, either party, act for one reason and one reason only; election. They obviously sniffed the political winds and decided that slamming the American people with electricity bills which “necessarily will skyrocket” (B. Obama) was not politically expedient. Those who had previously supported the ludicrous Waxman-Markey bill had their eyes opened and now are shunning the bill. The failure to pass the bill has nothing to do with China. China is doing what makes economic sense for them, not to impress us with their “green economy”. China imports more than 50% of their fuel. They are third in the world in coal reserves and have significantly reduced their domestic reserve estimates of oil and gas. Fossil fuel demand in China continues to rise. For strategic purposes, this is a bad position for them. As much as they are spending in the wind and solar industry, they are spending far, far more in exploration and production of hydrocarbons around the globe. Mr. Doerr, who is an Obama administration supporter (including the ill-fated cap and trade bill), and Mr. Immelt, CEO of a company whose income is derived not from fossil fuel, would obviously want us to spend more in this race. Their’s is a position which causes me to wonder what their real motives are; profits or real concern for our nations’ energy future. Pooley obviously feels that those of us who don’t buy into the headlong rush to RES are dinosaurs. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mr. Pooley makes a living by promoting green and bashing fossil fuels.

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