In today’s New York Times, David Brooks calls for federal energy R&D investment on the scale of the National Institutes of Health, around $25 to 30 billion per year, and compares today’s energy innovation agenda to the construction of railroads in the 1800s.
He cites our colleague Mark Muro, with whom my colleague and I from the Breakthrough Institute co-authored a piece in Yale Environment 360 last year called “To Make Clean Energy Cheaper, U.S. Needs Bold Research Push,” supporting the Brookings Institution proposal for energy discovery-innovation institutes and building on Breakthrough’s work:
WASHINGTON, DC, APRIL 2010 — A group of more than 100 university and college student government presidents submitted a letter (PDF download) today urging Congress to launch a national program for clean energy science and engineering education. The presidents – representing more than one million American students –warned Congress that advanced energy education is critical for U.S. leadership in the global clean energy industry.
“The United States is rapidly falling behind in the burgeoning clean energy industry – especially in comparison to China – and our educational system and workforce is not prepared to compete,” declared the 107 presidents, including dozens of the country’s top universities. “American students are ready and willing to rise to this national challenge, and we need the federal government to support our education and training.”
The letter, organized by Americans for Energy Leadership and the Associated Students of Stanford University, calls on Congress to support the RE-ENERGYSE (“Regaining our Energy Science & Engineering Edge”) proposal, which would invest tens of millions of dollars annually in energy science and engineering education programs at universities, technical and community colleges, and K-12 schools. It was originally proposed by President Obama in April 2009 and is currently under consideration in Congress as part of the Department of Energy’s 2011 budget request.
With healthcare reform in the rearview mirror, media speculation has shifted to the Senate’s next order of business and the climate bill, originally set to be unveiled on Earth Day but now indefinitely postponed. But unfortunately, the introduction of this bill does not guarantee energy and climate legislation will pass, or even be a main focus in the months leading up to the midterm election. Even one of the bill’s lead authors, Lindsay Graham, admits that immigration reform could overwhelm any chance for the climate bill to go through.
An article in BusinessWeek today went even further documenting the uphill road for this legislation in the toxic political atmosphere of tea-party protests, opposition to government, and skepticism on climate science. So powerful has the opposition become that supporters have moved away from even using the term “cap-and-trade,” preferring instead to describe it as “carbon pricing.” With even authors of the legislation and prominent supporters so openly cautious and pessimistic, it is no wonder most Congresspeople view this legislation as political poison to be left untouched until after the midterm election.
And if climate legislation waits until the midterm election, it will not pass. Not after Republicans gain several seats and the road to 60 votes becomes tougher. Some, including the Wall Street Journal, have suggested Congress might pass the bill in a “lame-duck” session after the election but before the new Congress takes over. But the possibility of this risky maneuver is slight and the probability that the resulting bill would amount to anything significant almost completely negligible.
Jesse Jenkins at the Breakthrough Institute has a new article for Forbes Energy Source, “Yes, Clean Energy Jobs CAN Be Shipped Overseas,” arguing that securing high-tech American jobs in the clean energy industry requires large-scale public investment:
If things don’t change, cleantech scientists and researchers will be the next to follow the cleantech factory worker overseas. Jobs in clean energy research, innovation, and new product development–traditional areas of U.S. leadership–are already on their way abroad as high tech giants and startups alike shift innovation activities to be close to vibrant clean energy manufacturing centers and markets overseas…
…what the United States needs to build a competitive clean energy sector capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs across the clean energy value chain is a comprehensive set of sustained public investments in cleantech research and innovation, education and workforce training, advanced manufacturing, and market creation (more on that strategy here).
This is how America has always sparked the innovation and high-value manufacturing that creates long-term jobs and built enduring industries that have formed the foundation for generations of economic prosperity. The primary reason the United States led in aerospace, communications technology, information technology, computing and the major new energy technologies of the later 20th century (gas turbines, nuclear, wind and solar power) is because the U.S. government made a series of smart investments on the cutting edge of each of these technology fields to catalyze entrepreneurship and innovation.
China is building an ambitious “Solar Valley City” as a new national center for manufacturing, research and development, education, and tourism around solar energy technologies. as part of the Chinese government and industry’s efforts to promote clean energy technology and grow the nation’s global market share (see video below beginning at 10 seconds).
Solar Valley City is located in Dezhou, Shandong Province, where I visited last month as part of a delegation from Stanford University, and it is unlike any city you’ve seen before. The city houses over 100 solar enterprises including major firms like Himin Solar Energy Group Ltd, the world’s largest manufacturing base of solar thermal products, and Ecco Solar Group. According to reports, around 800,000 people in Dezhou are employed in the solar industry, or one in three people of working age.
“China’s solar thermal industry and Himin’s complete industrial chain are examples for the rest of the world. That sounds brash, but it’s true,” said Himin’s CEO Huan Ming in 2009, now one of China’s richest men. Himin specializes in solar thermal technology, producing over twice the annual sales of all solar thermal systems in the United States, and it is quickly expanding into solar photovoltaics and other technologies.
In an article in ClimateWire, Lisa Friedman documents the U.N.’s 2010 China Human Development Report, which embraces investments in clean energy as a strategy to improve standards of living and welfare for millions of the nation’s poor. The argument mirrors a piece written in the Stanford Daily by Americans for Energy Leadership Director Teryn Norris entitled “Make Poverty History: Make Clean Energy Cheap.”
In the contentious political debate over climate policy and energy investment, a convincing argument that clean energy R&D will alleviate poverty stands as a major potential victory, but one that has yet to find a mainstream place in the conversation. The inclusion of poverty-alleviating effects in this Chinese report shows that that landscape might be beginning to shift.
Friedman points out that:
“With nearly 350 million rural Chinese expected to migrate to urban areas over the next two decades, officials said now is the time for China’s leadership to smash the traditional wisdom that has dictated that economic advancement necessarily comes with pollution.”
With such rampant urbanization comes increased health effects from coal and other fossil fuels – a key benefit of clean-energy development in addition to combating climate change. The report, as Friedman notes, does place climate change at the list of priorities, but intertwines that with concerns about jobs and human welfare.
“The annual development report this year focuses entirely on climate change and sustainable development in China. Done in partnership with Renmin University of China, it argues that the country needs to accelerate the phase-out of old and polluting equipment, industries and products. In its place, the authors said, China should ramp up its renewable energy development — but should also give priority to training, building institutions and pouring research and development funding into creating more jobs in low-carbon fields.
GE is starting to let its research and development organizations in China take the lead on research projects, rather than just playing a supporting role to its global research headquarters in New York…
Now it’s developing products in research facilities in China and selling them in China before finding new applications for these products in its more traditional markets. GE says this is essential for competing in China, where many companies are able to offer low-priced goods and create new products for emerging markets such as China and India, as well as richer countries.
The increased competition for GE from local companies in China is due in part to a massive push by the Chinese government to promote clean energy and R&D. In recent years, it has rolled out a range of renewable energy targets and financial incentives, including significant tax breaks for companies that invest in research related to energy…
The GE research center has also been key for the development of wind-power technology, including power electronics hardware and software that allow wind turbines to keep operating after lightning strikes and other events cause sudden drops in voltage on the power grid. The center has now produced 20 patents in this general area, says Yunfeng Liu, the manager of GE’s power conversion lab in Shanghai.
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the 20 collegiate teams selected to compete in the next U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon which will be held on the National Mall in Washington, DC in the Fall 2011. For two weeks, teams of college and university students from across the United States and the world will compete to design, build, and operate the most affordable, attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.
Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, the competition will highlight affordable homes that combine energy-efficient construction and appliances with renewable energy systems that are available today. The competition also supports the Administration’s goal of creating a clean energy economy, while saving American families and businesses money and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
“These students are tomorrow’s leaders in helping develop a clean energy economy,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Their innovative projects will help raise public awareness about energy efficiency, help save consumers money and reduce carbon pollution.”
The U.S. Solar Decathlon is one of the flagship national energy competitions, held each year by the Department of Energy. The Decathlon would become part of the RE-ENERGYSE program that Americans for Energy Leadership is advocating, if it is appropriated this year by Congress.
Ten U.S. Senators, lead by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), submitted a letter (PDF and press release) yesterday to Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham (KLG) calling for stronger provisions to improve U.S. competitiveness in clean energy manufacturing.
The letter makes a strong appeal to U.S. competitiveness with China and outlines several provisions the Senators would like to see included in the energy and climate bill, which is now scheduled to be released by KLG on April 26th. The letter states:
We know that other countries, in particular China, have already started to vie for leadership in the new clean energy economy. China has already become the world’s leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels. This is a contest that America cannot afford to lose. Our nation’s economic future depends both on our global competitiveness and access to reliable energy sources. We must not allow our nation to become dependent on foreign clean energy industries or squander the opportunity to compete successfully in the global clean energy marketplace.
Senator Brown has been a leading advocate for advanced U.S. clean energy manufacturing, previously championing the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act of 2009, which would create a $30 billion revolving loan program to help auto suppliers and other small and mid-sized manufacturers retool for the clean energy industry.
Jesse Jenkins and Devon Swezey, two of my colleagues at the Breakthrough Institute, have a new piece up called “A Clean Energy Competitiveness Strategy for America” as well as a video of their recent presentation at the World Energy Technologies Summit. They write:
“In the face of aggressive foreign competition in the clean energy industry, the United States urgently needs a comprehensive competitiveness strategy of its own to accelerate the development of a domestic clean energy industry and take advantage of emerging export opportunities. Such a strategy should prioritize large and sustained public investments in clean energy R&D, advanced clean energy manufacturing, innovative deployment, and clean energy education.”
Jenkins and Swezey build upon the report we co-authored last year called “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant,” the first comprehensive report to benchmark national clean energy competitiveness in Asia and the USA. Read their full piece here, and check out the video below.
In today’s New York Times, David Brooks calls for federal energy R&D investment on the scale of the National Institutes of Health, around $25 to 30 billion per year, and compares today’s energy innovation agenda to the construction of railroads in the 1800s.
Reported from the 
Ten U.S. Senators, lead by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), submitted a letter (
