Hill Heat

Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama’s global warming/energy policy has developed significantly in the past year, from endorsement of coal-to-liquids funding to his policy platform unveiled yesterday.

Summary of Obama’s energy policy:

• 100% auction cap-and-trade with 1990 levels by 2020, 80% cuts by 2050
• $150 billion investment over ten years in clean energy and green jobs
• 2030 goals: reduce U.S. economy energy intensity by 50%, reduce oil consumption by 35%,
• Standards: 25% federal RPS by 2020, all new buildings carbon neutral by 2030, phase out traditional incandescents by 2014
• Smart grid with distributed generation
• Increase CAFE standards to 35 MPG, Renewable Fuel Standard to 36 billion gallons by 2022
• Require 60 billion gallons of biofuels by 2030
• Re-engage in UNFCCC

Witnesses

Panel 1

• The Honorable Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy

Panel 2

• Kyle Pitsor, Vice President of Government Relations, National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)
• Mr. Steven Nadel, Executive Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficent Economy

Coverage from Bloomberg:

The world’s three largest lighting companies, long at odds over a way to eliminate inefficient incandescent light bulbs in use for 125 years, now favor Senate legislation (S. 2017) over a House-passed measure [H.R.2751, Sec. 9021 of H.R.3221] some say will outlaw all but the spiral-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs.

Royal Philips Electronics NV in Amsterdam, the world’s largest light-bulb maker, Munich-based Siemens AG and General Electric Co., based in Fairfield, Connecticut, support a bill introduced last week by Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat.

The measure would phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2014 and replace them with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, halogen bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, and higher efficiency lights. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs, held a hearing on the plan today.

The House bill would require a further improvement by 2020 in efficiency that industry representatives do not support because they say it would rule out bulbs they are developing to meet the 2014 standard.

“If you tell us that the products we have to spend millions of dollars bringing to market in 2014 will become obsolete in 2020, it’s very difficult for a company to go to their shareholders and say that’s an investment worth making,” said Randy Moorhead, vice president of government affairs for Philips Electronic North America, a division of Royal Philips.

House and Senate aides said today they hoped to reconcile differences in the proposals in negotiations on energy legislation, which currently is bogged down in Congress.

12/09/2007 at 10:00AM