Growing Renewable Energy in the U.S. through CLEAN Contracts - a Perfect Fit

A Policy to Repower the Nation with Clean Energy

No policy has helped other countries expand their renewable sources of electricity more than the CLEAN contract, also known as a feed-in tariff or FIT. Transparency, certainty and longevity of the contract forms the basis for its widespread acceptance, and its success in developing wind and solar power in other countries and a few states.

A CLEAN contract makes Clean Local Energy Accessible Now. The policy allows renewable energy project owners to sell their electricity to utilities at a predetermined, fixed price for a long period of time. Clean energy providers are paid a price for their electricity that covers the cost of the generation. It makes clean energy investment a smarter choice for homeowners, utilities, and developers of renewable energy projects.

The CLEAN contract helps overcome upfront cost barriers to investment by making renewable energy projects more easy to finance. The contract offers a standardized process for new projects, minimizing uncertainty for developers and confusion for homeowners. It reduces risk and lowers the costs of getting things built. The CLEAN contract makes it easier to run businesses, build projects, and give consumers what they want.

The Center for American Progress has written a detailed paper that examines the workings and ingredients of CLEAN contracts. The paper also looks at how lawmakers and advocates can successfully move CLEAN contracts forward given how the contracts are affected by federal regulation. Finally, it provides recommendations to ensure that policies benefit ratepayers, workers, investors, and the U.S. economy.

Learn more about CLEAN contracts at the Center for American Progress. A brief description of CLEAN contracts is provided in a video here and also below.

Isn't it time that we get on board and promote renewable energy development on a large scale through CLEAN contracts? Implementation of CLEAN contracts across the U.S. will accelerate clean energy deployment, recharge the economy and create new jobs. A shift from burning fossil fuels to utilizing clean energy sources will curb greenhouse gas emissions, reduce toxic pollution and protect human health.

Clean Energy News

Obama Asks Congress to Eliminate Oil Subsidies and Invest in Tomorrow's Energy

President Obama spoke in the State of the Union address of the promise of renewable energy, and the need to reinvent our energy policy and support innovation.

Obama said, "to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies." He added, "I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s."

Confirming his assertion, oil company profits are rising, as reported in the NY Times.


Clearing the Way for a Native Opportunity in America’s “Sputnik Moment”

Clean energy deployment in American Indian country can help address many woes, including limited access to electricity, high energy costs and elevated unemployment rates and poverty. Tribal lands are robust in renewable energy derived from the wind and sun.

An article by Van Jones, Bracken Hendricks and Jorge Madrid suggests ideas to stimulate a new wave of investment in clean energy and activate the economic potential of tribal lands. Read the article here.

VIDEO: Abreviated History of Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels have powered human growth and ingenuity for centuries. However, fossil fuel resources are limited, and obtaining, transporting and burning fossil fuels are creating problems for the environment, public health and national security. We need to prepare for moving beyond fossil fuels and transitioning to clean, renewable energy sources.

The video below depicts an abbreviated history of fossil fuels in a creative way, through time-lapse photography of hand drawn illustrations. Watch it and see 300 years of fossil fuel history in 300 seconds:

Where does electricity come from?

Do you know where your electricity comes from?

Fifty percent of the electricity in the U.S. is generated from burning coal.

Despite all of the industry hype about "clean coal", there is no such thing, and there never will be. Coal is dirty from start to finish: mining, mountaintop removal, watershed pollution, transportation, burning, greenhouse gas emissions, mercury and acid pollution of waterways, and toxic solid waste.

Isn't it high time to invest more into renewable energy, make the transition to a clean energy economy and create new jobs for coal miners and many others?

"The Story of Coal" video, below, was produced by a company that sells solar panels that use the free energy of the sun to make electricity. Other types of clean, renewable energy come from wind, hydropower and geothermal sources.

Watch the video to learn more about dirty coal.

Economy in Shambles, Midwest Goes Green

The U.S. Midwest finally has recognized that the industries that once powered its economy will never return. Now leaders in the region are looking to renewable energy manufacturing and technologies as key to the heartland’s renaissance.

Mariah Power manufactures distinctive vertical axis wind generating turbines and displayed them at the Michigan Energy Fair in Onekama, Mich. Four years ago, when the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association chose this tiny Lake Michigan town to host an annual display of the latest in alternative energy technology, most residents thought of climate change and clean energy with the same disregard as lawmakers in Washington.

This year, however, the Michigan Energy Fair attracted 5,000 visitors over three days. And today Manistee County is home to Mariah Power, which builds its Windspire turbines in a new manufacturing plant that employs more than 40 people now and 100 people by the end of the year.

Mariah, which exports most of its residential-scale windmills to Europe, is the first new manufacturing facility in Manistee County in a generation. It also is one of the more than 30 clean energy manufacturers — spanning wind, solar, geothermal, and the energy conservation and efficiency sectors — that have established new production facilities in Michigan in the last 20 months, generating more than 3,000 new jobs.

Largely guided by the region’s governors, Republican and Democrat alike, the Midwestern states independently developed new economic strategies that transcended politics. Between 2006 and 2008, all of the Upper Great Lakes states except Indiana approved renewable energy standards that required utilities to generate a portion of their power from alternative sources of energy.

Ohio and Michigan produced new multi-billion dollar bond programs to encourage entrepreneurs and help existing manufacturers retool, not only to produce equipment to meet the new standards but also to build clean vehicles, energy-efficient appliances, and other durable clean-energy goods. Wisconsin and Illinois focused on new research and economic development strategies to leverage their agriculture industries to produce clean biofuels. The Midwestern states also are providing support to community colleges for green-collar job training and encouraging universities to collaborate on clean energy projects.

Read the full article by Keith Schneider here.

Youth Powers a Shift to Clean Energy

Fans of renewable energy will love what's going on in our Nation's Capitol this weekend.

Washington DC is super-charged with the renewable energy of young voters attending PowerShift 2009 to demand a clean energy future. More than 10,000 young folks are expected to attend the February 27 - March 2 event, the largest gathering of its kind.

Politicians in DC are paying close attention. They had better since the young people played a huge role in the last presidential election: 23 Million of these energy-charged citizens voted!

To drive their concerns home, these young adults will show up at the Pol's Capitol Hill offices on Monday March 2 to lobby for the cause of a clean energy future. Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?



The events, activities and names of key speakers are listed here.
The home page is PowerShift 2009

Coal Power: Clean and Green?

While traveling along Interstate 70 in Pennsylvania, I saw several billboards like the one shown here. The message reads: "Welcome to Coal Country. COAL. Pennsylvania's #1 fuel for Electricity. NOW Clean and Green with New Technologies".

Amazing! Coal power is not only Clean, but also Green? Really? Ironically, one of the billboards was sited right in front of a wind farm! The wind turbine blades were spinning around, generating REAL Clean and Green Electricity. No need for a billboard advertising clean and green wind power when you've got the real thing! Big Coal is funding ads for the clean & green coal myth in order to remain in power, in more ways than one. Who are they fooling?

I don't know about you, but my image of coal is quite different than that portrayed by the coal power industry and their advocates. Everything about coal is dirty, and certainly not green: from extraction (including mountaintop removal, mining, and toxic runoff into waterways), to transportation (CO2 emissions plus coal dust from open railroad cars), incineration (massive CO2 emissions plus mercury, oxides of sulfur and nitrogen causing smog and acid rain, ozone pollution) and waste disposal. The photo of the two coal miners portrays some of the realities of coal...Not clean, Not green. Everything about coal is also Not healthy for people and other living things.

Coal power is on the way out, and renewable energy is moving in. Al Gore recently raised the bar on the clean energy time-line, calling for 100% renewable energy within 10 years. The coal industry is desperately fighting this sort of thinking, and is struggling to clean up its act and even trying to green it's image. Don't buy it. There's no such thing as clean coal power, and there never will be. And coal will be green...when pigs can fly.

A transition to 100% renewable energy would mean that coal miners will loose their jobs. Aware of that important concern, Al Gore said "We should guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced by impacts on the coal industry. Every single one of them." I agree wholeheartedly.

VOTE FOR THE PLANET !

Vote for RENEWABLE ENERGY and GREEN JOBS

Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike are interested in how renewable energy and energy efficiency measures can bring us 'green-collar' jobs and stimulate our ailing economy. For reports from the primaries by 1Sky.org, click here and here.

VIDEOS:
- Exit poll on clean energy and energy efficiency in SC, click here.
- Climate activists flipped out over 'clean coal' lobby, click here.

GOV. SPITZER'S STATE OF NY STATE ADDRESS

Albany, Jan.9, 2008 - Encouraging remarks about Global Warming and Clean Energy: "Energy should be reliable, plentiful, and clean. On the demand side, we are committed to ... a goal of reducing statewide electricity use by 15 percent from projected levels by 2015. On the supply side...if we are going to fast-track any kind of energy production, it must also help us confront the challenge of global warming." For the full text, click here.