President Obama Calls for Greater Use of Renewable Energy
President Barack Obama’s inaugural address called for the expanded use of renewable energy to meet the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Noting that "each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet," President Obama looked to the near future, saying that as a nation, the United States will "harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories."
Those were the first references ever to our nation’s energy use, to renewable resources, and to climate change in an inauguration speech of a U.S. president. President Obama later circled back to the subject of climate change, proclaiming that "with old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to … roll back the specter of a warming planet." See the inaugural addresses of all the presidents, including President Obama’s inaugural address, on the American Presidency Project Web site, an effort of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
As the president was being sworn in, the newly revised White House Web site went live, and it prominently features President Obama’s agenda for energy and the environment. The president’s "New Energy for America" plan calls for a federal investment of $150 billion over the next decade to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
Specifically, the plan calls for renewable energy to supply 10% of the nation’s electricity by 2012, rising to 25% by 2025. The plan also calls for deploying energy efficiency, including the weatherization of one million homes each year. It also calls for an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to achieve an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And to help meet that goal, the plan sets a target of placing one million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015, along with a national standard to reduce the carbon emissions from our motor fuels. To help meet the plug-in hybrid goal, the plan calls for a new $7,000 tax credit for those who purchase advanced vehicles. See the president’s New Energy for America plan on the White House Web site.
The U.S. Senate also acted swiftly following the inauguration, and in a brief session the senators confirmed the nominations of Dr. Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture, and Ken Salazar as Secretary of Interior. In an Interior Department press release, Salazar noted the importance of federal lands to energy production, promising to help build a clean energy economy for the twenty-first century. He also called President Obama’s energy imperative "our moon shot" for energy independence. See the announcement of the confirmations from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Bureau of Land Management to Establish Renewable Energy Offices
In one of his last official acts of office, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has helped pave the way for his replacement, Ken Salazar, by authorizing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to establish offices that will expedite renewable energy development on the National System of Public Lands. The new Renewable Energy Coordination Offices will expedite the permitting of wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal projects on BLM-managed lands, along with the electrical transmission facilities needed to deliver the energy from those projects to power-thirsty cities.
The Renewable Energy Coordination Offices will be staffed by BLM employees from a variety of natural resource disciplines, and will also receive staff support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other bureaus within the Interior Department.
The offices will initially be located in the four states where companies have shown the greatest interest in renewable energy development: Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming. The new offices will also improve the BLM’s coordination with state agencies and other federal agencies, including DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. See the BLM press release.
The BLM and the U.S. Forest Service also issued Records of Decision last week to amend 130 of their land use plans to support the designation of more than 6,000 miles of energy transport corridors on federal lands in 11 Western States. The amendments were based on analyses presented in a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that was prepared by the BLM, DOE and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Defense as part of their work to implement the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The PEIS, released late last year, identifies energy corridors in the West for transmission and distribution lines that will help facilitate the development of renewable energy resources. The energy corridors could also carry pipelines for oil, natural gas, and hydrogen. Approximately 5,000 miles of energy corridors are located on BLM-managed lands, while nearly 1,000 miles of energy corridors are on U.S. Forest Service lands. Roughly 120 miles of corridor segments are on lands managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, and the Department of Defense. See the DOE press release and the Web site for the PEIS, and the recent press releases from the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service.
USDA Guarantees an $80 Million Loan for a Cellulosic Ethanol Plant
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last week that it has approved its first-ever loan guarantee to a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant. Range Fuels, Inc. will apply the loan to the construction of its plant near Soperton, Georgia, that will convert wood chips into ethanol through a high-temperature gasification process.
The loan guarantee falls under the Biorefinery Assistance Program that was authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill. AgSouth Farm Credit, a leader in agricultural and rural loans and part of Farm Credit Services, will be the lead lending agency on the loan. The first phase of the Range Fuels plant is currently under construction, with production expected to begin in 2010. See the USDA and Range Fuels.
A number of companies are making progress on converting non-food biomass materials into transportation fuels. POET, the largest ethanol producer in the world, announced last week that its pilot plant in Scotland, South Dakota, is now producing ethanol from corn cobs at a rate of 20,000 gallons per year. The company claims the startup of the pilot facility has gone smoothly, offering promise for the planned construction of a commercial facility, starting next year.
Verenium Corporation also plans to build a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, with construction slated to begin later this year in Highlands County, Florida. Starting in 2011, the completed facility is expected to convert grasses into 36 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year. Verenium is currently building a demonstration-scale plant in Jennings, Louisiana, with financial support from DOE.
In addition, Syntroleum Corporation notes that construction has begun on a facility in Geismer, Louisiana, that will convert animal fats and greases into renewable diesel fuel and jet fuel. Syntroleum joined with Tyson Foods to form Dynamic Fuels LLC, which plans to start up the new plant in early 2010. See the press releases from POET, Verenium, and Syntroleum.
Offshore Wind Power Moves Ahead in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
The U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) published a favorable environmental review of the proposed 420-megawatt Cape Wind offshore wind project, opening the door for the agency to grant a lease for the project. The proposed project would be located in federal waters in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts.
The MMS released its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the project on January 16. The FEIS found significant benefits from the construction of the Cape Wind offshore wind energy project and identified no major environmental impacts from the project. The MMS also noted that the proposed location is superior to alternative sites, that the project will generate jobs and support businesses in New England, that it will help Massachusetts to meet its renewable energy requirements, and that it will significantly reduce regional emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants.
According to Cape Wind, the MMS Record of Decision on granting a lease to the company could come within 30 days of the FEIS release. The company earned approval from the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board back in 2005, and won additional approval from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in 2007. Cape Wind officials hope to complete the permitting process by March, allowing construction to finally begin. When complete, the Cape Wind project is expected to supply 75% of the electricity needs of Cape Cod and its neighboring islands. See the project overview and press release from Cape Wind, and the FEIS from the MMS.
Offshore wind power is also making progress in Rhode Island, as the state signed a joint development agreement with Deepwater Wind Rhode Island, LLC to develop wind power facilities off the state’s coast. Under the agreement, the state will identify a number of approved sites for offshore wind power, and Deepwater Wind will be first in line to select one of those sites for development.
The company plans to initially build a 20-megawatt facility in state waters, with construction starting in late 2010 and finishing in June 2012. The company will then pursue a lease from the MMS to build a facility in federal waters that can generate enough electricity each year to meet 15% of the state’s power needs. That project is expected to cost more than $1.5 billion. As part of the agreement, Deepwater Wind will build a facility in Quonset to manufacture the wind turbine support structures and related parts. See the press release from Rhode Island Governor Richard Carcieri.
Northeast Greenhouse Gas Allowance Auction Raises $106.5 Million
The second auction of allowances for greenhouse gas emissions held by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) was a robust auction that yielded $106.5 million for use by the 10 RGGI states, according to Potomac Economics, an independent market monitor.
The auction was held on December 17, and while some feared that the economic situation would depress the prices for the emission allowances, in reality the prices went up, selling at a clearing price of $3.38 per allowance. That’s about 10% higher than the clearing price of $3.07 per allowance that was reached in the first auction, which was held in late September 2008.
RGGI (pronounced "Reggie") is the first market-based, mandatory cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. 10 northeastern and mid-Atlantic states are participating in the program, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. See the RGGI press release (PDF 146 KB) and Web site.
RGGI helps reduce the region’s greenhouse gas emissions in two ways: first, the steady reduction of the emissions cap will eventually force electric generators to find ways to cut their emissions, primarily through energy efficiency or renewable energy. As the cap decreases, the rising cost of the allowances will effectively add an increasing carbon price to traditional fossil-energy combustion, improving the cost competitiveness of cleaner alternatives.
But the auction also yields a new source of revenue for the participating states. Massachusetts, for instance, gained $14.8 million from the latest auction, the bulk of which was directed toward utility energy efficiency programs, heating system upgrades for the homes of families earning low incomes, and a new "green communities" effort. The funds are also supporting a new $5 million training program for energy auditors, insulation installers, and other energy efficiency technicians, creating skilled labor needed for the "green collar" opportunities that are generated by the concerted effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. See the press release from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
The RGGI states certainly seem to think the process works, as they have already embarked on a new effort to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle fuels. Governor Patrick announced on January 5 that the 10 RGGI states are teaming up with Pennsylvania to create a regional Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which will be a market-based, technologically neutral policy to address the carbon content of fuels. The standard will require reductions in the average lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions per unit of useful energy, and it should promote a gradual shift to advanced biofuels and to cars powered with electricity. See the governor’s press release.
2008 Lands Among the Ten Warmest Years on Record for the Globe
Calendar year 2008 was somewhere in the range from the 7th-10th warmest year on record, according to the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS). The GISS actually finds 2008 to be the ninth warmest year, but it also notes that several close years fall within the range of scientific uncertainty, which is why it’s difficult to say exactly where 2008 falls in the rankings. The range defined by GISS is convenient, because it embraces the different rankings found by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which says 2008 tied with 2001 as the eighth warmest year on record, and the United Kingdom’s Met Office, which found 2008 to be the tenth warmest year on record.
The climate monitoring groups do agree on one fact, however: the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997. They also agree that a La Niña contributed to cooler global temperatures in 2008, relative to the previous several years. See the global temperature analyses from the GISS, the NCDC, and the Met Office.
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Kevin Eber is the Editor of EREE Network News, a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
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