Advanced Energy Perspectives

The week started out with much consternation over a CBS “60 Minutes” segment Sunday night proclaiming “The Cleantech Crash.” DOE slammed it, with spokesman Bill Gibbons declaring 60 Minutes “flat wrong on the facts.” GigaOM said it got some things right and others wrong, notably conflating government programs (which have had some failures but are largely successful in achieving public goals) and VC investment (which have had some successes but more failures, but that’s what VC does). Energy Collective contributor Robert Rapier, who was featured in the piece prominently as a critic, complained of selective editing. “I gave several examples of cleantech successes to Lesley Stahl, and I told her in no uncertain terms that cleantech is not dead,” he posted after the segment aired. One solid rejoinder came from an AEE Partner, New England Clean Energy Council, along with an excellent Storify collection of pushbacks on Twitter. AEE joined in the social-media chorus with a series of “Memo to @60Minutes” tweets pointing toward our Economic Impacts of Advanced Energy report, which sized the advanced energy economic opportunity at $1.1 trillion globally and clocked the $130+ billion U.S. industry growing at a 19% rate. Perhaps the best rebuttal-in-advance of the “cleantech crash” thesis was this story that appeared in the New York Times the day before, documenting a “Solar Power Craze On Wall Street,” a trend doing well by AEE member company Solar City, in particular.

At the end of December, news outlets were reporting a startling development.  Energy use in US homes had fallen to 2001 levels. This reduction in energy demand happened while more of us are using computers as a part of our daily (i.e., non-business) lives and all sorts of electronic gadgets litter our homes.

There are many reasons for this. More laptops and fewer desktop models mean less energy demand even though we use computers more. Now tablets and phones are multiplying as well, but competing over weight, size and battery life – all of which means using energy more efficiently. LED backlighting has made many flat-screen TVs – energy hogs when they were first introduced – more energy efficient than the old cathode ray tube models.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to develop its first greenhouse gas performance standards for both new and existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. These new GHG standards could increase opportunities for both supply- and demand-side advanced energy technologies to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, depending on the ultimate regulatory design. This is the latest in a regular series of blog posts chronicling important news about these EPA regulations and their development.

At the EPA, Janet McCabe has been formally nominated as EPA’s new air chief. McCabe has served in this role since Gina McCarthy’s confirmation as EPA administrator. Despite the upcoming battle over greenhouse gas emissions, McCabe’s confirmation should be easier now that Senate rules prevent a filibuster on her nomination. McCabe joined EPA in 2009 after running an Indiana nonprofit on children’s environmental health. Prior to that, she was a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health, and worked in the Department of Environmental Management.

This piece was originally published at The Hill. 

At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, a number of federal tax code provisions critical to advanced energy growth disappeared. That’s because Congress has allowed itself to make tax law by inertia. Without Congress saying a word or taking a vote, millions of dollars of tax credits to bolster investment and entrepreneurship simply vanished. Congress should act now to extend these tax provisions retroactively.

It’s now 2014 and we have a busy year ahead: much needed legislation to revive the tax provisions that just expired, federal energy tax reform, EPA’s rulemaking to curb carbon pollution for existing power plants, energy efficiency legislation, and much more. Then there are the midterm elections, with which all of this will have to contend.

Unfortunately, last year ended with a number of tax provisions critical to advance energy expiring due to arbitrary deadlines set the last time they were renewed.  It’s now up to Congress to retroactively extend those tax credits once again, and as soon as possible. Otherwise, financing for land-based and offshore wind power, geothermal, biofuels, energy efficiency, and other advanced energy investments will become significantly more challenging, for no reason other than federal inaction.