Hill Heat

E&E News reports:

The Senate Finance Committee will mark up legislation that includes more than $32 billion in energy tax incentives tomorrow, but House and Senate tax writers are split over including a new grant program for renewable energy projects in the economic stimulus bill.

Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved H.R. 598, a set of tax measures that included roughly $20 billion in energy incentives. The proposal before the Finance Committee tomorrow mirrors that plan in several respects, including a three-year extension of the availability of production tax credits for wind, geothermal, biomass and other projects.

Both measures would also allow developers to use the investment tax credit – which currently applies to solar and fuel cell projects – in lieu of the production tax credit.

Other common features include: lifting caps on the dollar value of 30 percent investment tax credits for residential wind, solar thermal and geothermal projects; extending tax credits for energy efficiency improvements to existing homes through 2010 and increasing the value of the credit; increasing the size of credits for installing alternative fuel pumps at gas stations; and a 20 percent credit for energy-related research spending in areas including renewable energy and carbon sequestration.

They also share an additional $1.6 billion in so-called clean energy renewable bonds to help fund an array of renewable energy projects. The bonds are intended as a funding instrument for public and cooperative power providers, which are not eligible for the production tax credit. Both packages also provide more than $2 billion worth of energy conservation bonds for state and local projects to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Senate plan has manufacturing credit but no DOE grants

But differences have emerged over how best to give an increased jolt to renewable energy investments that are jeopardized by the economic downturn.

The Senate Finance Committee plan lacks a House provision that allows wind, solar and other renewable energy projects to receive Energy Department grants rather than federal tax credits to help fund projects. The House provision applies to projects placed in service this year and next year.

This funding has emerged as a priority for the renewable energy industry, which says that current tax credits – a mainstay of project financing – do not work in an economic downturn because project backers lack the tax liability to use them. Also, several key banks and other funders – such as Lehman Brothers – have either gone under or face other problems.

The Senate plan would, however, extend the carryback period for business credits - including renewable energy credits - from one to five years, at an estimated cost of $11 billion over a decade.

Elsewhere, it includes up to $2 billion worth of energy-related manufacturing investment credits. These 30 percent “advanced energy manufacturing” credits would go toward creating or retooling manufacturing facilities to make components used to generate renewable energy, storage systems for use in electric or hybrid-electric cars, power grid components that support the addition of renewable sources to the grid, and making equipment used in carbon capture and storage projects, according to the Finance Committee.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is championing this proposal. “We know that the right incentives will bring vital manufacturing to American soil. When enacted, it will put our country in a much better position to capture the economic potential associated with growing demand for technologies that harness renewable energy resources,” he said in a statement Friday. Bingaman is also on the Finance Committee.

Lawmakers may also seek additions to the bill when the Finance Committee considers it tomorrow. Two members of the committee – Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) – recently introduced a bill, S. 271, that expands incentives aimed at speeding up production and use of plug-in electric vehicles.

E&E News reports:

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s package – first unveiled Friday evening – largely focuses on the same policy priorities as the House version when it comes to energy and infrastructure, though there are some differences in spending levels.

All told, the Senate legislation contains $51 billion for projects that are designed to develop alternative energy technology and significantly expand renewable energy use.

The single biggest energy item in the legislation is $40 billion that will be given to the Energy Department for the development of “clean, efficient, American energy,” though few specifics have been offered on just how that money will be spent.

The energy portion also provides $2.6 billion to replace older vehicles owned by the federal government with alternative fuel vehicles, $6 billion to repair federal buildings in a way that uses energy efficient technology, $1.3 billion for energy efficiency and “green” energy retrofits and $613 million for Defense Department energy efficiency and alternative energy projects.

The bill also contains a grand total of $140 billion for programs that are classified as being for infrastructure or science, including:

• $27 billion for highway construction and repair and $8.4 billion for transit that would be dolled out under an existing federal formula.
• $5.5 billion for competitive grants to state and local governments for surface transportation investments.
• $4.6 billion to build and repair water resources infrastructure and an additional $1.4 billion to construct, repair or rehabilitate water infrastructure in the western United States.
• $1.1 billion for development of rail transportation.
• $3.4 billion for repair and restoration of public facilities located at parks, refuges and other public lands.
• $3.2 billion that will be used for energy efficiency projects and to improve the repair and modernization of Department of Defense facilities.
• $830 million for construction and repair of roads located on park, forest, tribal and other public lands.

On top of those dollars, the bill contains at least $15 billion for environmental cleanup and clean water initiatives, including $6.4 billion for environmental cleanup of former weapon production and energy research sites; $6 billion for sewer, wastewater and drinking water infrastructure to be handed out through the U.S. EPA’s Revolving Funds program; $1.4 billion to support loans and grants for rural area water and wastewater infrastructure; and $1.4 billion for EPA environmental cleanup programs such as Superfund.

And on the science front, the bill provides $1.4 billion for National Science Foundation research and $1.5 billion for NASA, including $500 million for research involving the Earth’s resources and climate.

Witnesses

Panel 1

• John D. Porcari, Secretary of Transportation, Maryland Department of Transportation
• Fred Hansen, General Manager, TriMet
• Les Sterman, Executive Director, East-West Gateway Council of Governments
• Deron Lovaas, Federal Transportation Policy Director, National Resources Defense Council
• Samuel R. Staley Ph.D., Director, Urban and Land Use Policy, Reason Foundation

Panel 2

• Sharon Banks, Chief Executive Officer, Cascade Sierra Solutions
• Tommy Hodges, Chairman, Titan Transfer, Inc.
• Dan Schaffer, Product Manager, TX Active, ESSROC Italcementi
• Dave Tilley, President, Crawford Green Systems

What are the forces that shaped consumer culture in the U.S.? How does per capita consumption in the U.S. compare with that of other countries, especially in the realm of energy usage? What impact has consumerism had on resources and living standards in the U.S. and elsewhere? What are the implications of maintaining our present level of consumption? What are the implications of other countries aspiring to levels of per capita consumption on a par with ours? How might our society begin to identify and embrace more sustainable habits and practices, and what might such practices be? What policy steps might the new Administration and Congress consider codifying in the interest of promoting a more sustainable lifestyle and economy?

Moderator:

Dr. Anthony Socci, Senior Science Fellow, American Meteorological Society

Speakers:

• Dr. Juliet B. Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
• Betsy Taylor, Consultant, Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions, Strategic & Philanthropic Consulting on Climate Solutions & Sustainable Development, Takoma Park, MD

Program Summary

Sustainability, Consumption and the Path Forward

At the center of the US ecological dilemma lies consumption. We have been a consumer nation for more than a century, having made a directed choice in the 1930s toward that path. Today, in the midst of the simultaneous crises of the economy and the environment, we are again faced with choices about how to move forward. Although it has gotten far less attention, business-as-usual spending is as problematic as BAU energy use. The US ecological footprint, which is twice the level of comparably rich European countries, exceeds the equitable global sustainability level by a factor of 5. Rising per capita consumption underlies the ecological overshoot of the world economy, which now exceeds biological capacity by 40%. In the United States, inflated-adjusted personal consumption expenditures increased 88% from 1973 to 2003, which resulted in a 37% rise in our ecological footprint. This is important because it has accompanied decades of attempts to save energy and de-materialize production, all of which have proved inadequate. Fortunately, there is increasing awareness of these issues, and a grassroots movement to transform consumer patterns and habits is underway. However, it has had virtually no legislative presence to date.

In Dr. Schor’s presentation, the issue of consumption will be placed into its historical and comparative context. New data will be presented on the magnitude of the ‘cheap import’ boom in material (and therefore ecological terms) over the last 15 years. Underlying economic factors such as labor market policies and the distribution of income affect the path of consumption and ecological impact. A medium term consumption path will be sketched out, which yields high levels of human well-being, is becoming broadly popular, and is ecologically sustainable.

Ms. Taylor will discuss an array of policy instruments that could promote a more sustainable standard of living and more sustainable consumerism. In the lead-up to address climate change through cap & trade or carbon fees, it would serve our collective interests to simultaneously address the root causes of ecological degradation and collapse. Ms. Taylor will also call for a rekindled debate on policies and programs that might steer our economy and culture in a more sustainable and durable direction. Biographies

Dr. Juliet Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Her most recent book is, Born to Buy: the Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner, September 2004). She is also author of the national best-seller, The Overworked American: the Unexpected Decline of Leisure (Basic Books, 1992) and The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need. The Overworked American appeared on the best seller lists of The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice, the Boston Globe as well as the annual best books list for the New York Times, Business Week and other publications. The book is widely credited for influencing the national debate on work and family. Schor also the author of Do Americans Shop Too Much?, co-editor of Consumer Society: A Reader (The New Press 2000) and co-editor, with Betsy Taylor of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-first Century (Beacon Press 2002). Dr. Schor is currently working on a book on issues of environmental sustainability and their relation to American lifestyles which will be published by The Penguin Press next year. She is a co-founder and co-chair of the Board of the Center for a New American Dream (newdream.org), a national sustainability organization headquartered in Maryland.

A graduate of Wesleyan University, Dr. Schor received her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics, and the Committee on Degrees in Women’s Studies. Her scholarly articles have appeared in professional venues such as the Economic Journal, The Review of Economics and Statistics, World Development, Industrial Relations, The Journal of Economic Psychology, Ecological Economics, The Journal of Industrial Ecology, Social Problems and others. Dr. Schor has also served as a consultant to the United Nations, at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, and to the United Nations Development Program. She was a fellow at the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1995-1996 for a project entitled “New Analyses of Consumer Society”. In 1998 Dr. Schor received the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language from the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2006 she received the Leontief Prize from the Global Development and Economics Institute at Tufts University for expanding the frontiers of economic thought.

Dr. Schor has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe and Japan to a variety of civic, business, labor and academic groups. She appears frequently on national and international media, and profiles on her and her work have appeared in scores of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and People magazine. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, numerous stories on network news, as well as many other national and local television news programs.

Betsy Taylor is the principal consultant with Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions, a consulting firm that serves clients dedicated to addressing climate change and promoting sustainable economic practices & policies. She is co-founder and Board President of 1Sky (www.1sky.org) a national campaign created in 2007 to focus the power of millions of concerned Americans on a single goal: federal actions by 2010 that can effectively address global warming and create five million green jobs. She co-founded and served as president of the Center for a New American Dream (www.newdream.org) a national organization that helps Americans live and consume prudently in the interest of a more sustainable world and improving the quality of life. During her tenure at CNAD, the Center launched the Responsible Purchasing Network, an association of socially and environmentally responsible purchasers representing over fifty billion dollars in buying power. The effort earned numerous awards, including being named in Washingtonian Magazine’s as one of the top fifty places to work in the D.C. metropolitan area. Betsy has appeared frequently on national television and radio and is the co-editor and author of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century. She previously served as Executive Director of the Merck Family Fund, Stern Family Fund, and Ottinger Foundation and has consulted with numerous foundations and donors. She has an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Duke University.

In August 2008, the Social Development Department of the World Bank launched a world-wide micro-documentary film contest on the social aspects of climate change. The goal of this initiative was to inspire people around the world to communicate how climate change was affecting their lives and livelihoods.

The Special Film Screening and Award Ceremony will provide an exciting opportunity for the winning filmmakers to showcase their films to the wider public.

Opening Remarks:

• Katherine Sierra, Vice President, Sustainable Development, World Bank

Keynote Address:

• His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Republic of Maldives

Cocktail Reception will immediately follow the Award Ceremony.

If you wish to attend the Film Screening and Award Ceremony, You MUST RSVP by sending an email to Megumi Makisaka ([email protected]) by Noon on Thursday, January 15, 2009. Please be advised, you must present a valid ID when entering the building.

If you will be attending the film screening and award ceremony, you may enter through the main entrance where H St. and Pennsylvania Ave. meet, between 18th and 19th Streets NW.

Location: World Bank Headquarters, MC2-800
1818 H Street NW

This afternoon seminar tied to the Social Dimensions of Climate Change Film Contest will examine, through lively discussion, various opportunities for and challenges of effectively communicating climate change from the perspectives of a varied panel of film-makers, journalists, academics and World Bank Group staff. Box lunches will be provided on a first-come, first-serve basis.

If you wish to attend the Seminar, You MUST RSVP by sending an email to Megumi Makisaka ([email protected]) by Noon on Thursday, January 15, 2009. Please be advised, you must present a valid ID when entering the building.

If attending the seminar please use the Visitor’s Entrance at 18th Street NW, between Pennsylvania Ave. and G St. NW.

Location: World Bank Headquarters, MC2-800
1818 H Street NW

On Thursday, January 22, at 10 a.m. the Committee will hold a business meeting to mark up portions of the economic recovery package that are in the jurisdiction of the Committee. Three separate measures are likely to be considered at this markup concerning the following issues: health, broadband, and energy. The health, broadband, and energy texts are posted below.

• Health Title III
• Health Title IV
• Health Title V

• Broadband Text
• Energy Text

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing to examine how infrastructure investment contributes to job creation and economic recovery. The hearing will address infrastructure across the Committee’s jurisdiction, including highways, bridges, public transportation, rail, aviation, ports, waterways, wastewater treatment facilities, and Federal buildings.

Witnesses

Panel 1

• Jim Doyle, Governor of Wisconsin
• Astrid Glynn, Commissioner of Transportation, New York
• Carole L. Brown, Chairman of the Board, Chicago Transit Authority
• John D. Clark III, Executive Director and CEO – Jacksonville Aviation Authority; Chairman, Airports Council International – North America

Panel 2

• Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• Robert Blunt P.E., President, Essex Construction, LLC
• John Marinucci, Senior Executive, New Flyer of America, Inc.
• Raymon J. Poupore, Executive Vice President, National Construction Alliance II
• Ed Sullivan, Chief Economist, Portland Cement Association
• Tony Withington, Amalgamated Transit Union International Representative

Panel 3

• Marian Orfeo, President, National Association of Clean Water Agencies
• Bob Bendick, The Nature Conservancy
• Larry Larson, Association of State Floodplain Managers
• James Weakley, Lake Carriers Association

Panel 4

• Nancy Bacon, Senior Advisor, United Solar Ovonic and Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
• Terrell G. Dorn, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues, Government Accountability Office
• Stephen S. Fuller Ph.D., Director, Center for Regional Analysis, George Mason University
• Sharon Juon, President, National Association of Development Organizations

The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will devote its first hearing of the 111th Congress to creating jobs and stimulating our economy through renewable energy and efficiency programs. The economic stimulus package being worked on by Congress and President-elect Barack Obama presents an opportunity for America to take a step forward by investing in renewable technology and infrastructure that will put people to work while transitioning our nation to a clean energy economy.

The panel will include Van Jones, foundering of Green for All, an organization promoting green-collar jobs and opportunities for the disadvantaged; Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia; Trevor Houser, an expert on energy markets and climate change; and Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. The hearing will be held on January 15th, at 2:00 PM (room location to be announced next week).

Witnesses

• Van Jones, Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and founding president of Green For All
• The Honorable Michael Nutter, City of Philadelphia
• Denise Bode, CEO, American Wind Energy Association
• Trevor Houser, Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Partner, Rhodium Group, LLC (RHG)
• Dr. David Kreutzer, Senior Policy Analyst in Energy Economics and Climate Change at the Heritage Foundation

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Working Group for Investment in Reliable and Economic Electric Systems (WIRES) invite you to the first of two briefings designed to explore key issues associated with the planning, construction, operation, and regulation of the nation’s high voltage interstate electric transmission network. Transmission issues have emerged as a major concern to policymakers and a broad variety of stakeholders over the past few years. As the new Congress and Administration prepare to take action on matters involving clean energy development, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy independence, and the reliability and security of electricity supplies, the investment in the “grid” has become an increasingly important matter of national energy policy. The physics and evolution of modern transmission systems are complex. An understanding of grid operations, planning, facilities siting, finance, and regulation nevertheless starts with these basics.

The first session (January 15) will provide a basic explanation of how the high-voltage “grid” actually works, what it accomplishes, and how it is regulated. A panel of experts on electric transmission operations and regulation will address the history and basic components of the grid, how electric power flows are controlled, the basics of grid interconnection and operations, the limitations of the system, and how operators address those limitations. This briefing also will survey the fundamentals of rate regulation and cost allocation, organized (Regional Transmission Organizations, or RTO) and bilateral (non-RTO) markets, regional transmission planning, siting, and reliability concerns. Although this briefing is for the uninitiated, the panel will invite questions at any technical level.

Speakers for this event include:

• James Hoecker, former Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Counsel to WIRES
• Kevin Kelly, Director, Policy Analysis and Rulemaking, FERC
• Wayne Galli, PhD, Director, Transmission Development, NextEra Energy Resources (formerly FP&L Energy)
• Gregory Ioanidis, Vice President, Business Strategy, ITC Holdings

This briefing is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. For more information, contact Laura Parsons at (202) 662-1884 or [email protected].

A second session will follow in February, with details posted at www.eesi.org as they become available. This briefing will tackle the major high-visibility policy challenges facing policy makers as they balance the need for investment in transmission with other energy-related objectives.