Senators Hear Testimony on Clean Energy and Climate Bill

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Senators Hear Testimony on Clean Energy and Climate Bill
The committee heard from climate scientists, energy company CEOs, state and local government officials, labor union leaders, utility company executives, Obama administration officials and others.
Many Apollo Alliance allies testified before the committee as well, including Board Member Dan Reicher, director of Google's climate and energy initiatives, and Senior Policy Advisor Kate Gordon, who also serves as vice president of energy policy at the Center for American Progress.
"Until the federal government truly commits to a low-carbon future, investment and employment in these [renewable energy] industries will never grow to the scale needed to truly drive an economy-wide resurgence," Gordon told the committee. "While many of the pioneering renewable energy technologies were invented here, today American companies control only six of the world's top 30 companies in solar, wind and advanced batteries. And since 1997, the U.S.'s green trade balance has moved from a $14.4 billion surplus to a deficit of nearly $9 billion last year. Our European and Asian competitors have moved aggressively to support renewable energy and, in the process, have developed greater renewable capacity as well as stronger industry growth. In fact, China's leaders are investing $12.6 million every hour to green their economy. As David Sandalow, assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the Energy Department recently put it, 'if they invest in 21st-century technologies and we invest in 20th-century technologies, they will win.'
"Our clean tech industry is impressive, but by global standards we are still playing in a garage band. We need to become Bruce Springsteen."
To hear Kate's and others' testimony, go to the Environment and Public Works Committee website and click on "view archived webcast."
National Climate and Clean Energy Policies Could Create Up to 1.9 Million Jobs
Speaking of the economic impacts of national energy policies, a new study released on Monday by Ceres, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) and the Clean Economy Network found that comprehensive clean energy and climate policies (such as the American Clean Energy and Security Act) will create jobs, increase consumers' income, and strengthen the U.S. economy.
The study – conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, Yale University and the University of California – found that comprehensive clean energy and climate policies would create as many as 1.9 million new jobs nationally, increase annual household income up to $1,175 per year, and boost the GDP up to $111 billion by 2020.
The study also examined state-level job creation. It found that national climate and clean energy policies could create up to 61,000 jobs in Ohio; 78,000 jobs in Pennsylvania; and 45,000 jobs in Indiana.
The national and state-level results can be viewed at the E2 website.
Climate Change Day of Action
If the senators who are debating a climate and clean energy bill were not spurred to action by the testimony they heard this week, perhaps they were moved by the outpouring of public concern about climate change that expressed itself last Saturday during a historic global day of climate action.
On Oct. 24, people in 181 countries came together at more than 5,200 events around the world, in what organizers said was the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history.
The events all centered on the number 350, which many scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. "Parts per million CO2 sounds too obscure an idea to attract crowds on six continents, but there were thousands of people in the streets from Togo and Ethiopia and Paraguay to Seattle and London and Sydney," said Bill McKibben, co-founder of the group 350.org, which organized the global day of action.
To see photos of the 350.org events, which ranged from snorkelers holding up signs reading "350" at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to climbers holding up "350" banners beneath the cable cars on Table Mountain in South Africa, go to www.350.org.
We need clean energy  now!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/