The bailout plan and prospects for renewable energy

The Greenwash Brigade

Sustainable thinking often requires the luxury of a long term perspective: If you don’t have fuel to prepare the evening’s meal, whether the firewood is harvested sustainably is likely not your first priority. In that context, our current economic meltdown could pose a threat to recent gains in public support for renewable energy and efforts to address climate change.

However my home state of Michigan, an economy with extensive experience in the economic meltdown arena, has been making measurable gains in renewable energy investment and green collar jobs support in spite of (or maybe because of?) our long-term economic challenges. There’s an attitude that the State has to do something to resuscitate the local economy after steady outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. And renewable energy and energy efficiency are viewed as solutions that provide inherently local jobs, while also addressing the larger issue of our dependence on foreign energy.

Michigan just passed a renewable portfolio standard (10% by 2015), installed its two largest wind turbines (2.5 MW turbines installed by Heritage Sustainable Energy), and the governor continues to be an outspoken proponent of green collar jobs.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the national bailout (excuse me, “rescue”) plan. The version just approved by the Senate includes about $17 billion in energy incentives; however in addition to renewables, the Senate’s energy incentives include oil shale coal-to-liquid projects that were previously resisted by the House and appropriately deemed “fuels from hell” by Thomas Friedman.

Speaking of Friedman and energy energy, with the election just over 4 weeks away, I’m reminded of his words from Hot, Flat, and Crowded: “It’s much more important to change your leaders than to change your light bulbs.”

October 2, 2008 by Jim Nicolow
1 comments

tags: bailout Michigan renewable energy

Comments (1)

Joellen Easton | Respond
October 2, 2008 2:35 PM PT

A little birdie just passed me this link, to a green collar job study commissioned by the U.S. conference of Mayors: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2008/10/02/greenjobs.html

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Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

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