Bill Clinton on Charting a Clean Energy Future

Writing from Nevada, site of the National Clean Energy Summit, Alex Bandza reports on Bill Clinton's remarks about charting a clean energy future:

According to Clinton, energy is at the heart of economic stagnation, national security, and climate change, making it a phenomenal challenge. We have come a long way mentally from Kyoto 10 years ago, when the treaty was dead on arrival “even before Al Gore stepped off the plan.” In contrast, today we see a Republican president signing tax credits for solar and candidates of both parties committing to carbon reductions.

Clinton emphasized that what is disturbing about the Kyoto Protocol is not the absence of the U.S.—what is truly disturbing, he finds, is that only 6-8 nations under the Kyoto Protocol will meet their targets by 2012. There are, in his opinion, no systems in place to finance and organize the changes necessary to meet these targets.

This point seems formidable, according to Clinton. The organization and management is lacking to such a degree that even the low-hanging fruit, energy efficiency, is still difficult to deploy.

Rhetoric will be important. If our line is that a “3-4% GDP reduction” is necessary for successful climate change mitigation, we will lose, in Clinton’s opinion. We must frame this as the benefits of an untapped economic boom in clean technologies and the costs of business-as-usual energy policy.

We need to be convinced of the economics of switching to a clean energy future or “we won’t make the sale.” Demonstrations will be critical.

Clinton emphasized the following 10 focal points for the summit:

1. Congress must take the lead in putting a price on carbon.
2. Commit the provisions of legislation for 6-10 years to stabilize investment.
3. Modernize the electric grid (both efficiency and carrying capacity).
4. Prioritize decoupling at the federal level.
5. Incentivize energy efficiency.
6. Fund carbon capture and storage (as the world will burn coal).
7. Accelerate the move away from corn-based ethanol.
8. Convert landfills for heating.
9. Modernize the rail network and deploy PHEVs.
10. Demonstrate to the rest of the world that meeting the challenge of climate change is not an affectation of rich countries or an economic restraint on poor countries.

Clinton also empahised the necessity of demonstrating not only that clean energy can work, but that it can work and be a boon to our economy. He suggested that America could "rock the world" by making one U.S. state or territory energy independent, echoing some of the many recommendations for Day One from many of our users.

Stay tuned for more from Alex later this week.