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Lois Henry: Energy policy blowin' in the wind
| Tuesday, Aug 19 2008 6:18 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Aug 20 2008 7:37 AM
Once again, leadership has taken a backseat to politics in Washington, D.C.
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Now, more than ever, we must have a national energy policy that takes a pragmatic view of what we need short-term and a visionary view of what we can achieve long-term.
Instead, Democrats flounced out of town Aug. 1 for a five-week vacation while oil and gas prices fluctuated between tortuous and merely painful for average American families.
And Republicans, who only recently put up their own energy bill, are playing the spurned lover at drama queen levels by hollering daily in the darkened House chambers for the Democrats to come back.
One word: Sheesh!
Meanwhile, a vitally important tax credit is being held hostage, which could have serious implications for the future of wind and solar energy in Kern County.
The production tax credit for renewable energy is set to expire Dec. 31. Two bottled-up bills — one sponsored by Democrats, one by Republicans — contain an extension of this tax credit.
So both sides recognize its importance. But they’re too busy politicking to actually do anything about it.
If they can’t pull their collective heads out and get this credit passed in time, it could be a major problem right here in little ol' Kern County.
The 3,549 turbines churning in the hills around Tehachapi produce 710 megawatts of clean electricity — enough to power about 250,000 homes annually.
But that’s the tip of the iceberg.
There are five major wind projects now going through the application stages with the Kern County Planning Department.
One was just approved for eastern Kern that will generate 300 megawatts, and the California Energy Commission has calculated that the Tehachapi resource area has the ability to accommodate enough turbines to generate between 4,500 and 6,000 megawatts more.
These are important numbers because California has created a deadline of 2010 (that’s just two years away!) under which utilities must obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. That increases to 30 percent by 2017, according to Linda Parker, spokeswoman for the Kern Wind Energy Association. Statewide, less than 5 percent of the state’s power now comes from renewable sources.
That production tax credit helps keep wind energy competitive with coal and oil by helping with research and development that in turn brings down the cost of generating electricity through wind.
“It is a big deal to the industry,” Parker said.
And because Congress would rather play games than get down to business, a number of wind companies are already passing us by, according to Randall Swisher, spokesman for the American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C.
“This has gone on so long that business planned for 2009 has been delayed and is not moving forward,” he said.
Even if the tax credit were taken out of the competing bills and passed on its own tomorrow, he said, companies have already pulled out of projects or decided not to locate in the United States.
“We’re blowing it,” Swisher said.
International companies that might be interested in locating their manufacturing operations in the U.S. are already setting their sights elsewhere because of our lack of a stable, consistent policy.
This is real-life stuff. We’re talking about jobs and sustainable energy that won’t foul our air or indebt us to foreign nations.
I would think Congress would take this kind of thing seriously.
Instead, the Democrat-sponsored bill that included the tax credit came up eight times — but was killed eight times because it had stuff that no Republican would vote for, such as reducing tax incentives for oil and giving them to renewables.
On July 29, the Republicans fronted their own bill, but it, likewise, has stuff no Democrat would allow, such as opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
Finally, on the eve of the congressional recess, a bipartisan bill was introduced that I hope will merit some serious discussion.
This bill, co-authored by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, allows offshore drilling but doesn’t open ANWR. And it gives a percentage of the royalties from offshore drilling leases to a renewable fund.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has signed onto the bill, along with several other valley congressmen, both Republican and Democrat.
Though McCarthy is also a co-signer on the other Republican bill, he said he signed on to Costa’s as well because he’s committed to working with whoever he can to get a national energy policy off the ground.
Judging by the inaction so far, I fear we’ll be grounded for some time to come.
These are Lois Henry’s opinions, not necessarily The Californian’s. Her column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Call her at 395-7373 or write lhenry@bakersfield.com.