Who to Look For at the SOTU

When the camera moves across the gallery during tonight’s State of the Union, keep an eye out for two Arizona leaders in clean, renewable energy. Dr. Jeffery Britt, head of Tucson-based Global Solar will be there as a guest of Representative Gabriele Giffords (D-AZ). Donald Karner, the CEO of Phoenix’s own eTec, will be in the gallery, too, invited by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Global Solar

Thin-film solar cell

Britt’s company produces a variety of solar products, using the thin-film solar cells manufactured at its twin Tucson plants. One plant is powered by a 750 kW solar field.

“After working for many years in the solar energy industry,” Britt said earlier today.

“I am particularly interested to learn about the president’s proposals on renewable energy. Besides energy, there are so many critical national issues at stake now – health care, jobs, the economy – that make this a truly historic moment. I suspect that passion will be running high in the president and all the members of Congress. Television just cannot capture those feelings. I’m grateful to Congresswoman Giffords for giving me the opportunity to be present at this event.”

eTec

eTec charging stations

Donald Karner’s company should be familiar to Phoenix Sun readers. We’ve reported several times on eTec’s work designing, building and deploying new-generation battery chargers for electric vehicles.

eTec received nearly $100 million in stimulus funds to (I can’t help myself) jump-start the EV industry with charging stations being built in four states, primarily along highway corridors between major cities. eTec is installing several chargers along Interstate 10, for example, between Phoenix and Tucson.

It’s an exciting moment for clean, renewable energy in general and for solar power in particular. As the Senate drags its collective feet on passing a climate bill, companies like Global Solar and eTec are helping to reshape our economy, climate and even our way of life.

If you want to know the state of the Union, tune in tonight. When the camera is pointed at the gallery, you may get a good glimpse of the positive changes already underway here in Arizona — and throughout the Nation.

Not to suggest that the problems of nuclear power have been solved, but for the last couple of weeks the MSM have been focusing on the “other” China syndrome — the one that involves solar energy, not nukes.

Writing for the NYT, Keith Bradsher summed up the issue neatly in his opening paragraph.

WUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Wait a minute, if China is going all out for solar, why do opponents of any climate change bill invariably cite China’s giant CO2-belching economy as a justification for their opposition?

Is China really going green? Or is it still ramping up its emissions of greenhouse gases?

Yes, and yes, writes Christina Larson in a Boston Globe op/ed.

“China,” according to Larson, “may soon have the odd distinction of being the world’s leader in alternative energy — and industrial pollution.”

The Chinese government is investing ten times as much money into alternative energy as is the US  (as a percentage of GDP). But, Larson points out, the Chinese are far more concerned about achieving market domination than they are about cleaning up their environment. At least in the short term. For the last four years, China has doubled its wind power capacity annually, which will have long term environmental benefits. But government enforcement of anti-pollution laws and regulations is lax, lest it interfere with profits.

According to today’s Business Wire, the Chinese solar manufacturer, Suntech, has been selling PV panels on the US market at a loss, in an effort to drive out competitors.

So, what should the US do?

Essentially, says Jennifer Schwab, we need to beat the Chinese at their own game.

Schwab, who directs the sustainability program at Sierra Club Green Home, wrote in HuffPo last week that the US should steer more stimulus money toward our own nascent solar power manufacturing industry.

While Schwab says she “generally support(s) free markets,” this isn’t the time for ideological purity. “It is mission critical that America be the worldwide leader in renewable energy and green jobs.”

And, while we’re discussing movies…

Take a look at this one, made by Greenpeace, about President Obama’s paternal grandmother and the new solar panels on the roof of her previously non-electric house. Enjoy, and have a good weekend and Labor Day.

Senate Deliberations

If it weren’t for mixed messages, the US Senate wouldn’t be sending any messages at all.

Yesterday, WaPo ran a story about how the Senate, once hot to trot on passing a climate change bill, had decided to rein it in. Climate legislation got its first hearing before Senator Barbara Boxer’s Environment committee on Tuesday. Afterwords, Grist’s Kate Sheppared noted, Boxer’s office was planning to vote on a bill in “early August.”

Two days later, Boxer announced that they’ll have a bill “as soon as we get back” from the Senate’s last-of-summer break. Translation: See you in September. A final vote may not come before December’s UN conference in Copenhagen on climate change.

Said Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), “I don’t even expect it to come up this year.”

WT@$#?

Good question. The answer is, unsurprisingly, special interests.

Joe Lieberman (RepublicanposingasanIndependent-CT) wants to insert a “No Nukes Left Behind” provision. Shunned by the House, the nuclear power industry is looking to the Senate to grab a piece of the action coming from a bill for clean and renewable energy. (The fact that nuclear power is neither clean nor renewable only makes the industry shout louder).

And what about agribusiness, which stands to receive only a paltry sum of hundreds of millions of dollars under the concessions doled out by the House? That needs to be negotiated, says Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). According to the WaPo piece:

Asked if he thought the Senate could pass a bill this year, Harkin, with 33 years serving in Congress, said on Wednesday, “My experience here is that these things take a lot of time.”

Which is the one thing scientists insist we don’t have, if we are to avoid the worst effects of global warming.

But now comes word, via Environment & Energy news, that Senate Dems are really juiced about getting a climate bill done ASAP.

WT#$%@*#%$!&%$!?!

An even better question. The answer is, again unsurprisingly, spin.

Senator Tom Harkin (still D-still from IA) is quoted in this story as saying that, in essence, Reid has put the climate bill on the fast track.

“He’s pretty hot on it,” said Harkin. “He wants the bill done. And the president wants it before December.”

Feeling whip-lashed yet? Confused?

Here comes Senator John Kerry (D-MA), to break it down. Brace yourself.

“Look, our goal is to pass it [by Copenhagen]. I don’t think we even have to have it passed, essentially. But our goal is to do that. And it’s better if it is. But it’s not catastrophic if it isn’t.”

President Obama must have a strong climate bill passed by the Senate when he goes to Copenhagen. With that in his pocket, the heads of state gathered in Denmark will see Obama as the world leader on the issue he called “one of the defining challenges of our time,” at the G8 meeting this week in Italy.

Without such a bill, Obama, and our nation, will be seriously weakened on an issue where we need to be strong.

The League of Conservation Voters took some heat when they announced that in the next election, they would not endorse any member of the House who failed to vote for HR 2454, the Waxman-Markey bill.

At the time, I figured it more rhetoric than substance, a way to generate debate and focus attention on the bill, and I asked the group for an off-the-record response to my view.

I got a strongly-worded on the record response.

This is the most important environmental bill of our generation and LCV cannot endorse a candidate who votes against it. Any who feel that stand is too extreme don’t understand the urgency of passing this bill and putting millions of Americans to work creating clean, safe, American energy.

Here’s hoping the LCV — and a critical mass of Americans — feel the same way about the Senate vote. Maybe Senators need to see what the pig never does:  just beyond the trough lies the abattoir.