El Phoenix Sun

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Talk about a vicious circle.

The artificially low price of gas just bit us in the butt, big time. As Washington Post writer Ezra Klein points out, however, the circle goes well beyond the horrific toll on wildlife caused by the BP oil disaster. It goes farther than the lost tourists dollars and the crippled seafood industry in the gulf — each losing billions.

The real damage is the self-perpetuating nature of our addiction to cheap oil. By forcing workers, taxpayers and the environment to absorb the real costs, we prevent serious development of any alternatives. Solar power isn’t just renewable and clean, it doesn’t cause mega-disasters like the oil-spewing well at the bottom of the ocean. A wind turbine can’t break and result in a “catastrophic wind spill” — Stephen Colbert’s concerns, notwithstanding.

Yet these and other safe and reliable technologies are forced to compete with Big Oil’s bogus pricing. “Solar and wind are just too expensive,” claim energy pundits and oily politicians, who should, and often do, know better.

The lie of “cheap gas” is self-perpetuating. Solar, wind and wave power will never be competitive as long as the system is — pardon the pun — rigged.

[Read this post, along with an excerpt from Ezra Klein's.]

I’ll write more on this later, but for now I just wanted to ensure that this important bill (the Department of Defense Energy Security Act) received at least a mention here at El Phoenix Sun on the day it was introduced by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

You can get more information on the bill here.

The Solar Energy Industries Association released the following statement this afternoon, in response to the Senate climate bill, the American Power Act:

While we’re still analyzing the 987-page bill, we’re pleased with the effort to place a price on carbon, an essential step in stopping global warming and stimulating greater deployment of renewable energy sources like solar. But to really make a difference, we need to ensure that any revenue from this legislation is targeted directly at deploying renewable energy like solar – an energy source that 92 percent of the Americans say they want greater use of, now.

We also believe that for any climate legislation to succeed, it must embrace one of solar’s key strengths – its diverse applications. Distributed generation solar, like photovoltaics and solar water heating, as well as utility-scale solar power are both crucial to fighting climate change and should be rewarded for generating clean energy. These proven technologies have been working for decades and serve as one of the reliable ways to address global warming.

Lastly, we hope to see protection for the voluntary renewables market. Under previous climate bills, no effort on the parts of homeowners and businesses to generate their own carbon-free energy was recognized in lowering the ‘cap.’ We hope that this major issue has been addressed and individuals have been empowered to have a real impact on the amount of pollution released into our environment.

Senators Kerry and Lieberman deserve a great deal of credit for pushing ahead with these vitally important issues. We should not pass up this opportunity to move America’s clean energy economy forward. A well-structured bill that deploys more renewable energy will create stable, well-paying jobs, help achieve energy security, and fight global warming. We look forward to working with Congress and the Obama Administration to get the right policies passed into law.

Not exactly a full-throated endorsement of a bill that makes major concessions to the nuclear power, coal and oil industries. Clearly, though, SEIA understands both the political realities that necessitate some compromise and the giant step the bill makes by placing a price on carbon.

Oh, yes, and the need to “work with Congress…to get the right policies passed…” [My emphasis]