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Renewable
Energy Now!
by
Paul Richards, Candidate for U.S. Senate Montana |
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- Due
to Arab oil embargos more than 30 years ago, the United States
learned that it had to convert from a fossil fuel-based economy
to a renewable energy-based economy. Our country's addiction to
fossil fuels made it easy for oil-rich mid-Eastern potentates
to hold us hostage. We needed the national security and community
stability provided by decentralized energy production.
In Montana, we responded quickly to the need to tap renewable
energy. We dedicated two and a half percent of total coal revenues
from our new coal tax to renewable energy projects. As legislators,
we figured the best way to optimize using a finite resource (fossil
fuels) was to use revenues from that consumption to firmly establish
renewable energy, thus helping create a positive empowered future.
Montana’s alternative energy program that passed when I
served in the legislature was a national model. It funded hundreds
of innovative projects throughout the state, most of which remain
functionally on-line today. Unfortunately, subsequent short-sighted
legislatures dramatically cut Montana’s renewable energy
program. At the national level, President Reagan dismantled the
alternative energy programs of the Carter administration, even
going to the ridiculous extreme of removing the White House’s
solar collectors.
For reasons unknown, we seemed to enter a collective national
amnesia concerning our addiction to finite fuels. That amnesia
has now ended, due to the Bush administration’s attempts
to control the oil of Iraq.
As I wrote in the “Support
Our Troops!” section of this Web site, the Iraqi people
need to control their own resources and their own destiny. Instead
of fighting endless wars over oil supplies, the American government
needs to invest in our nation’s energy infrastructure. Every
farmer could harvest wind power, every rooftop generate solar
electricity, every car be made fuel-efficient, and every home
and factory be insulated.
Energy independence is the solution. And, that doesn’t mean
the dependence nightmare scenarios of the oil, coal, and nuclear
industries. It means renewable energy, serious conservation programs,
millions of small-scale generation projects, and subsequent strengthened
local economies now!
The “Apollo Alliance” is a coalition of labor unions,
environmental groups, urban leaders, and citizens of common sense.
The Alliance has proposed a 10-year drive for energy independence
that would create three million new jobs and set America free
from foreign oil.
These new initiative addresses challenges that America can no
longer afford to ignore: The economic imperative - we have lost
16 % of all manufacturing jobs since Bush took office; the national
security imperative - we import well over half of all our oil,
most from unstable and undemocratic nations; the environmental
imperative - we face mounting evidence of global environmental
crises; and the social imperative – we face $1.6 trillion
in unmet infrastructure needs in cities and rural communities
while we suffer the worst state fiscal crisis of our time.
While the Apollo project is about changing our future, it is built
on an honest assessment of our past and the recognition that public
leadership and meaningful public investment have historically
been essential for economic development and promoting new technology.
In the past, government investment in the railroads, in the national
highway system, in the space program, in the research and development
of the micro chip and other technologies elevated our economy
and quality of life to new levels. We cannot sit on the sidelines
now if America is to move forward. The American economy will not
grow its way out of problems 30 years in the making without genuine
political leadership.
The new Apollo Initiative calls for a large scale federal commitment,
on the scale of $30 billion/year for 10 years, to achieve a new
energy infrastructure that is diversified, environmentally safe,
and more efficient. This initiative will turn challenge into opportunity.
It will generate good jobs and help U.S. companies capture the
green markets of the future. It will reduce dependence on foreign
oil. It will rebuild communities, and it will make America an
environmental leader again, helping put the world on a path to
a sustainable future.
The new Apollo Initiative will achieve these benefits by pursuing
four broad strategies:
1. Diversify our energy sources: making America less dependent
on foreign oil, while making energy more secure, more affordable
and reliable, and less polluting.
2. Invest in the industries of the future: promoting new technology,
improving manufacturing processes, and expanding markets for American
durable goods.
3. Promote construction of high performance, energy efficient
buildings: saving money and rebuilding more livable, more equitable,
and healthier environments.
4. Drive investment in cities and communities: renewing our commitment
to building smart public infrastructure for transportation, energy,
and other vital public services.
Taken together, these strategies combined with national commitment,
public investment, meaningful standards, and political will, can
bring about enormous benefits for both America and the world.
A $30 billion investment per year for 10 years would provide the
following benefits:
Add more than 3.3 million jobs to the economy;
Stimulate $1.4 trillion in new Gross Domestic Product;
Stimulate the economy through adding $953 billion in personal
income and $323.9 billion in retail sales; and
Produce $284 billion in net energy cost savings.
As a U.S. senator, I will help guide the Apollo Initiative through
the treacherous waters of Washington, D.C. Congress needs to represent
the long-term interests of our country, not just the short-term
profits of the world’s largest transnational energy corporations,
who hold no allegiance to the United States.
Studies show us that we can readily:
1. Reduce national energy consumption by 16% in 10 years;
2. Reduce transportation-related petroleum consumption between
1.25 million barrels per day and 2.55 million barrels per day,
or the equivalent of cutting Persian Gulf imports between 54%
to 110%;
3. Place 91 million advanced performance vehicles (38% of fleet)
on the road by 2015;
4. Meet 15% of electricity demand through renewable resources
by 2015, placing the nation on track to achieve 20% of electricity
from renewable energies by 2020;
5. Reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 28%;
6. Reduce nitrous oxide emissions by 13%;
7. Reduce carbon emissions by 23%; and
8. Produce cleaner air that will significantly reduce human
health impacts like asthma.
To review a “Ten-Point Plan for Good Jobs and Energy Independence,”
“Apollo Jobs Report,” concise renewable energy news,
and other detailed information, go to: http://www.apolloalliance.org/.
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