Barack Obama has placed moving toward a clean energy economy core to his vision of a more perfect America. A vision being worked on, literally, today for action in the near term. And, the disastrous and dismaying economic situation has heightened the necessity for massive injections into economic activity with the quite real potential for significant funding for programs and activities that could shift the nation toward a smarter energy future. Come January, we are likely to see a stimulus package of $500+ billion. Just how "green" will it, can it, be?
President-Elect Obama, the Transition team, and others have called on Americans to submit concepts and ideas for the coming Administration ... including this mass stimulus package. Does this community, the incubator of Energize America, have the motivation to step up, together, to foster people-powered policy recommendations into what is an amazingly open process working to turn Obama's visions into tangible programs?
A Short Background
The Daily Kos community has, for most of its history, had a portion of the community with a passionate focus on energy and enviornmental issues. Over time, the discussions built in intensity and quality. Seemingly an eternity (and well over 100,000 UIDs ago), three Kossacks (Jerome a Paris, Devilstower, and Meteor Blades) spearheaded an effort to transition from talking about the problems to seeking to leverage the intelligence / experience / knowledge / passion of this community's participants to fashion solution paths.
Through 100s of diaries, 10,000s of comments by 1000s, Energize America developed through fall 2005 and spring 2006. The discussions necked down to specific issues (minor, unconversial ones like gas tax or not), grand elements (targets), and framing. We had a target in mind: the first Yearly Kos meeting in Las Vegas, where four Energize America leaders presented a summary of a 20 point plan: Energize America 2020 (pdf). On the panel with the Kossacks? The next Secretary of Commerce, Bill Richardson.
Let's be honest, the 20 point plan is uneven and not all of the concepts merit our support today. And, we wrote it in a far different political environment, with a Bush Adminstration firmly supported by a Republican-controlled Congress. Times have changed ...
In 2007, Energize America worked with members of Congress to develop specific legislative concepts for moving the nation forward toward a more sensible energy future. Our thoughts were to seek innovative concepts that could well gain 'bipartisan' support and foster the basis for more significant future action. We proposed four unique concepts that provided leverage well beyond their own, specific funding, to build capacity and set the grounds for far more aggressive action under the next Administration. The Energy Smart Communities Act is a concept for Federal support (funding, expertise) for local bond programs across the nation to 'green' local government infrastructure, leading to saving money, sparking economic activity, reducing pollution, and building capacity (of all types: workers, businesses, regulator/inspector knowledge, community awareness of possibilities) to accelerate 'greening' throughout the economy. Sigh ... these failed to see reality for a variety of reasons but could well be part of the coming stimulus package.
Turning to thoughts for now ...
A question before us: Is there energy? Is it legitimate to pursue or should people simply submit ideas independently of group discussion and action? Do we have anything unique to offer or should we simply accept that (great) ideas like the Center for American Progress' green stimulus package are more than adequate enough and we can sit back and watch? Is there a community for developing substantive recommendations for the incoming Administration and the 111th Congress? Should the target be general or (simply?) the stimulus package?
Very shortly, the stimulus package is operating under tight constraints, not just the heightened immediacy of passage potentially for signature by President Obama inauguration day. Target: create jobs ASAP (within months) and significant numbers ('Create or protect 2.5 million jobs'). And, there is a major preference for elements that simply require additional funding, and absolutely no new legal, regulatory, or organizational creations to be able to execute. This, of course, is both understandable and highly frustrating as guidance as much of what is required to create a better future might not create significant jobs tomorrow, even if action today sets the stage for something grand tomorrow. And, constraining to existing programs means that nothing the Republican-controlled Congress or George the W wouldn't allow to become reality will be able to be created within this stimulus package.
The 'Grand Vision' or Specific Programs?
In 2006, EA2020 proposed a comprehensive (with some real strengths and some flaws) package to address energy, climate change, and economic issues through moving toward an Energy Smart future. In 2007, EA2020 worked to develop specific programs that could enable that future, but were not, in any shape or form, "Silver Bullet" comprehensive solutions.
What should be a vision for action today?
The grand vision or developing 'niche' Silver BBs that merit being there, but not be on the agenda for action as of yet?
Some short thoughts as to specific ideas
Here are some thoughts as to potential action:
Greening the Schools: the stimulus package will, almost certainly, have significant resources for greening public infrastructure. This should be reinforced and maximized. It is hard to exaggerate the value brought via Greening Schools
across energy, pollution, fiscal, economic stimulus, and health terms. What is perhaps most interesting is, when examining the systems-of-systems impacts, Greening the Schools might be the only path toward improving school performance and student achievement while saving money within school budgets to apply to other requirements (whether salaries, text books, art programs, or ...).
An Energy Smart Green the Schools Act would provide an additional $500 million / year additionally in a stimulus package to (1) to enable 100% of new school construction to meet Energy Star / LEED Silver standards (at a minimum) ($200 million); (2) $200 million to spark achievement of Energy Star + / LEED Gold or Platinum in additional school construction; $50 million a year to fund student data gathering and research in public schools on program impacts/efficiency as well as education in, for example, conducting energy audits. Finally, the act would provide $25 million per year in scholarship awards to students engaged in these efforts. And $25 million would be available for standards development, lessons identified, and for educating school boards, school administrators about greening efforts, the financial and other benefits from greening the schools. To be clear, greening school facilities is almost certainly the most cost effective way to improve student performance, with students (and teachers) doing better in healthier schools. And, the energy savings alone will pay for any extra capital costs to ‘green the school’.
Note: School construction and renovation budgets are getting slashed across the nation. The $s above are almost certainly too low. Without a doubt the stimulus package will have money for school construction, even green construction. The question: can we help make it 'greener' to achieve even more benefits for society and America's youth?
PHESBs: As long as we're on schools, let's talk about school buses for a moment. Traditional buses get roughly 6 miles to the gallon and emit significant amounts of diesel fumes. Writ large, this costs communities a lot of money and the diesel pollution contributes to a range of health problems. (Note, some medical research concludes that diesel fumes are the top threat to youth health. While perhaps not 'the' top threat, the fumes certainly represent a threat.) Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Buses (PHESBs), of which there are 18 on a test program across the nation, get significantly better mileage (over 11 miles to the gallon for the Austin Independent School District but this is dependent, of course, on individual operating patterns) and reduce youth exposure to diesel fumes by perhaps 70%. (Eliminates the exposure to fumes with a bus idling when picking up/discharging students and reduced fumes within the bus.) And, in addition to helping reduce America's oil addiction and improving youth health, the PHESB would provide tremendous opportunities due to their power storage and generation capacity. Imagine, for example, if all the school buses on the Gulf Coast and in nearby states had been PHESBs in 2005? Imagine 2500 mobile 20 kilowatt generators, each with 200 kWh of power storage, ready to move to emergency shelters, hospitals, grocery stores, and elsewhere to provide power amid the devastation?
Right now, however, there is a signficant cost-to-buy vs cost-to-own challenge. A 'normal' bus costs roughly $80k while a PHESB, currently, would cost in the range of $200k. At $120k, just based on fuel use, the PHESB and normal bus would cost the same over a seven-year operating cycle (and buses normally last 20 years, or so) without considering all the other benefits. How to get there? Moving from kit built to mass production. Orders in the range of 1000 or more would get us there. Why not a program to get us there, and quickly?
This could mean $100 million / year to spark the PHESB industry and to make PHESBs the standard for school systems. First year, $50 million for paying up to 50% of cost of PHESB for acquiring school district (40% year 2, 30% year 3, 20% year 4, 10% year 5); $30 million for paying up to 85% of PHESB cost for disadvantaged school districts (maintain this level); $10 million for PHESBs for military bases (for two years; after that for buying PHESBs for prison system and other Federal government bus requirements); $5 million to assist in PHESB efforts outside schools and the Federal government; and $5 million for V2G (vehicle-to-grid) research and deployment assistance specifically focused on (school) buses. Note: No state to receive more than 20% of the funding per year; minimum of 20 states per year in funding. All 50 states to have PHESBs supported for purchase by year 5. By the end of the fifth year, if the average assistance is $50k, this program would foster introduction of over 4000 PHESBs and make PHESBs competitive with traditional diesel school buses for purchase decisions.
There is an existing PHESB research program, with funding. Could this provide a path for moving from research to mass funding? And, according to correspondence with industry and others re the buses, they are ready to move to mass scale rapidly, with the shift from regular buses to PHESB not nearly as difficult in industrial terms as something like the Volt. In addition, school bus orders are falling as local governments seek to cope with collapsing revenue streams.
Electrifying Rail. An Energy Smart Rail (ESR) Act would seek to spark private industry to invest to transition the US rail system to all electric. A $5 billion / year for ten years initiative to spark private investment in electrification of rail system. (This would make the Federal commitment in the range of 50% of the total cost. Note, for that, reduction of US oil demand by 500,000 or more barrels per day by 2020 ... roughly 2.5% of US current demand.) $1 billion/year in additional funding for research and development support for using the electrified rail system for a HVDC grid across the country. $100 million in funding for rail energy related research.
As part of this deal, any railroad accepting funding must agree to granting full right of way access (at no charge) for using the right of ways for electrical power distribution. As a 'hidden' benefit, electrification of the rails would make every single rail spur a potential site for power generation (windmill, micro-hydro, geothermal, concentrated solar power) with minimal cost and disruption for connecting the power source to the grid. (Senator Reid: in addition to that high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and LA, imagine if the solar power sites that passengers might be able to see that would power their voyage and, perhaps, be powering their homes as well.)
As to the stimulus package, are there existing programs and legal structures that could be used as the path for funneling these resources?
Dashboard Feedback Systems: Realtime feedback systems on energy use foster more sensible energy use patterns. Very roughly, the "Prius Effect" seems to lead to a 10+% improvement in gas mileage across a broad set of the nation (and, by the way, safer driving habits). In addition to requiring (as part of the bailout package) that 100% of new cars have real-time feedback on fuel efficiency on the dashboard, should we initiate a program to get such dashboard systems (such as the kiwi) into existing cars? Perhaps, on mass scale, this would cost $50 per car. With the benefits of reduced oil demand and reduced highway fatalities / accidents, is this worth it to the nation? With 200 million vehicles on the road (roughly), at $50 per device (a fair figure at mass production and eased deliver), it would cost about $10 billion to provide 100% of car owners a certificate for a dashboard system. The societal benefit: roughly a 1 million barrel / day reduction in oil imports. (At $50 barrel, $50 million/day and $18.25 billion/year reduction in the US balance of payments deficit.) This would, of course, also foster lower oil prices through further reduced demand.
Those are just a few ideas. There are many others potentially worth talking about and promoting.
- Energy Smart Homes Bond: Should the Federal government work to support and promote local bond efforts like Berkeley's to enable building owners (homes and otherwise) to have eased access to funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts in their homes?
- Energy Smart Taxis: The highest return in financial and pollution terms for moving to hybrids is with taxis while also improving air quality in urban areas. Should the Federal government have a program to spark rapid movement to hybrid taxis?
- White Roofing: Highly reflective (high-albedo, 'white') and green roofs could well be a serious Silver BB to fight global warming while helping improve society on many fronts. Could the Federal gov't mandate reflective roofing (or better, e.g, green roofs) for all flat roofs now (and sloped roofs eventually), with some funding for the transition from traditional asphalt roofs to reflective roofing?
Well, the specific ideas could continue for 10,000s of words ... and this is already a short-enough discussion.
What do you think?
Should we Energize America together? Do you want, are you ready to step up to the plate? What merits discussion / promotions?
Thoughts ...
Reactions ...
Help ...
Ask yourself: Are you doing your part to ENERGIZE AMERICA?
Are you ready to do your part?
Your voice can ... and will make a difference.
So ... SPEAK UP ... NOW!!!