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Lawmakers should empower state’s economy with a clean-energy plan

Thu Mar 19 2009

It’s time for our leaders to get serious about climate solutions. Neither nature nor the economy can wait. We can build a new energy economy that delivers much stronger economic performance while protecting the climate. But we’ve got to get cracking.

A stronger, cleaner economy is already being born here in Washington. Energy efficiency investments are saving power and money while improving the comfort of our homes and the competitiveness of our businesses. Clean energy industries are expanding rapidly, from large-scale wind farms to solar manufacturing to new “smart grid” technologies. Green jobs are growing in new sectors such as renewable energy and in traditional sectors such as aerospace, software and wood products. Transportation choices are becoming more readily available.

GridPoint is working on creating the smart grid technologies that will revolutionize the ways that we distribute and use power. The company’s Electric Vehicle Management division (formerly V2Green) is a rapidly growing unit based in Seattle that develops innovative ways to charge electric vehicles at the times when clean, renewable energy is most abundant, and uses vehicles as distributed storage to respond to peak needs. Most forecasters are anticipating explosive growth in worldwide markets for electric vehicles due to volatile oil prices, climate policies, and changing consumer preferences. “Smart charging” technologies like GridPoint’s will be an essential component of the new electric vehicle infrastructure, allowing utilities to respond to this growing load without building more polluting power plants.

So the potential is clear. The clean energy transition is coming into view, but we have to scale it up and accelerate it. Our promising initial steps show that we can do this, but they don’t yet match the scale and urgency of the challenge.

For as long as most of us can remember, our elected officials have warned against the dangers of excessive fossil fuel dependence — the economic hit, the security risks, the climate disruption. Yet for the most part, they have allowed the problem to keep growing.

Now, the consequences of this affliction have become unbearable. While lawmakers in Olympia are struggling to close a budget deficit estimated to be more than $8 billion for the next two years, the Washington state economy lost a staggering $16 billion by importing fossil fuels just last year. If we don’t reduce fossil fuel dependence, it will strangle the economic recovery.
 
While the direct economic impacts of fossil fuel dependence are top of mind, the environmental impact is also hitting close to home. After the third consecutive year of record flooding — due to weather patterns consistent with what scientists have told us to expect from global warming — it’s clear that climate disruption is a clear and present danger.

Fossil fuel dependence is an economically terminal condition if left untreated. But we can kick this thing with an approach that’s at the heart of President Barack Obama’s economic strategy: building a new energy economy.

This is an immense and exciting challenge, and we can’t tackle it with a piecemeal strategy — a tax break here or a green public building there. Those targeted policies are essential. But they need a solid foundation: a clear public policy commitment to reduce our fossil fuel dependence, with a timetable and real accountability for results. This commitment will provide a strong, technology-neutral signal to accelerate private investment in the best solutions.

Will it be easy or simple to pass such a policy? No. Big changes never are.

The governor has put forward a strong proposal in her climate bill (HB 1819/SB 5735). Any policy this comprehensive is bound to provoke controversy and leave some questions unanswered. But it’s time for the real leaders to step up to the plate.

More speeches about the dangers of fossil fuel dependence won’t get it done. Modest policy tweaks alone won’t get it done. Give the climate bill a robust debate. Roll up your sleeves and improve it. Close the loopholes. Make it stronger.

And then pass it. Stand and deliver on the promise of real climate solutions and a new energy economy for Washington.

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Published in the Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) March 16, 2009

_{DAVID KAPLAN is co-founder of V2Green and former general manager of GridPoint Electric Vehicle Management.}

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