New Energy Future Reports

Executive Summary

Our reliance on dirty energy is fueling global warming, harming our health, threatening our security and stalling our economy. Burning coal, oil and gas for energy and transportation is responsible for 80 percent of U.S. global warming pollution and most of our smog and soot pollution.

We can protect our environment and strengthen our economy by investing in clean energy and green infrastructure. A green economic recovery plan would mean less global warming pollution, fewer asthma attacks from air pollution, more clean lakes and rivers for drinking water, swimming and fishing, more secure energy in the long term, and more jobs than investing in the dirty energy technologies of the past.

President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to make clean energy and green infrastructure a cornerstone of America's economic recovery. In his first radio address of 2009, the president-elect said "to put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient."

This report provides specific recommendations in support of the president-elect's efforts to ensure a green economic recovery and estimates the environmental benefits of those recommendations.

These proposals, when fully implemented over the next decade, would reduce annual global warming pollution by nearly 10 percent below current levels and reduce oil consumption equivalent to taking one million cars off the road each year. These proposals would begin to transition America to a clean energy economy and put more than three million people to work quickly in ready-to-go projects. This is nearly as many jobs as Obama has called for creating with the entire stimulus package.

The following measures represent initiatives that will have the most significant impact in promoting cleaner energy and creating quality jobs:

RENEWABLE ENERGY

• Ensure effective incentives for clean, renewable energy

• Expand the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds

• Fund the Green Jobs Act

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

• Fund energy efficiency and conservation block grants

• Expand the home weatherization program

• Create a home and commercial building retrofit program

CLEANER TRANSPORTATION

• Fully fund New Starts transit capital projects

• Support transit modernization and rehabilitation

• Increase authorized transit operations and energy development assistance grants

These and other recommended clean energy and green infrastructure initiatives totaling

$142 billion dollars in federal investment would have significant environmental and economic impacts:

• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 670 million tons per year when fully implemented over the next decade, which represents a reduction of nearly 10 percent of America's current annual global warming pollution. This represents a significant step towards reducing the nation's global warming pollution to what scientists say is necessary to avert the worst impacts of global warming.

• Replace the power equivalent of 170 coal-fired power plants with renewable energy and energy development efficiency. Our proposals to extend the renewable energy Production Tax Credit and invest in renewable energy on federal property, among others, would reduce significant global warming pollution and create hundreds of thousands of new, clean energy jobs.

• Reduce oil consumption by more than 25 million barrels annually by meeting growing demand for mass transit and cleaner alternatives to driving. This would be equivalent to taking nearly one million cars off the road each year. These benefits would increase substantially over time as our transportation system becomes more and more efficient, rather than more polluting and congested.

In crafting a green economic recovery package, our leaders have an unprecedented opportunity on three fronts:

• Putting the nation on a path to avert a global warming crisis;

• Providing a massive stimulus to the economy and putting millions of workers to work in quality jobs;

• Invigorating America as we lead the world to a clean energy future.

An economic recovery package with smart clean energy development and green infrastructure investments can put America on course to save our environment by rebuilding our economy through creating quality jobs and developing new industries and technologies.

This report provides a comprehensive set of recommendations on how to best accomplish a green recovery based on research and analysis from throughout the environmental community, to include public, private and non-profit entities. Environmental, employment and fiscal impacts are assessed within each proposal based on previously conducted studies, in addition to primary and secondary research.

Renewable Energy

Investment and long-term commitment to renewable energy such as wind and solar will play a crucial role in repowering America with clean, homegrown energy. We recommend at least

$62.3 billion in investments in growing renewable energy sources, installing renewable energy systems in schools and other government buildings, green job training, and innovative technologies. These investments will help us face the greatest environmental challenges of our time, and in addition create or sustain more than 833,000 jobs.

Electricity generation contributes more than one third of U.S. global warming pollution.4 We have the potential to power the entire country many times over with clean sources such as wind and solar.

By making smart investments now, expanding incentives for renewable energy, shifting our own government toward renewable energy, and funding advanced research and development of new renewable energy technologies, we can set a course to repower America with 100 percent clean electricity.

Our recommended investments would reduce global warming emissions in the electricity sector by at least 424.5 million tons a year by 2020,5 equivalent to the global warming pollution of 158 typical coal-fired power plants.6

We propose the following economic recovery investments:

• Amend renewable energy production and investment tax credits

• Develop renewable energy on government property

• Increase capacity of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds

• Extend the renewable energy production tax credit

• Fund the Green Jobs Act

• Expand federal Power Purchase Agreements

• Create Energy SmartPARKS

• Adopt a Solar Schools initiative

• Research and development of advanced batteries

• Expand Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Additional investments and policies, such as a renewable electricity standard, a renewable energy colorado manufacturing tax credit, and solar rebate could add nearly a million new jobs and help America repower with clean, homegrown energy.

Funding the Green Jobs Act, for instance, would expand and improve existing worker training programs as well as replicate them all across the country. For example, Cincinnati State

Technical and Community College has created a Renewable Energy major. As part of the program, students earn $10-$14 an hour working for renewable energy companies. The major prepares students for jobs such as electronic technicians, product test specialists and electro-mechanics, which pay a starting salary of $30,000-$42,000.7 Demand for these jobs is high right now and is expected to grow. Cincinnati State would like to expand enrollment in the major and invest in on-site training facilities, and the program can easily be reproduced at community colleges and technical schools all across the country.

These investments and policies and their associated environmental and economic benefits are addressed in more detail in the following narrative and in the appendix attached to this report.