Alternative energy runs into headwind
Clean energy technology champions are scrambling to secure the tax breaks. Photo by AP Photo
For the renewable energy sector, it’s a wonder either wind or solar power is still standing.
Austere budgets and small government have become Capitol Hill credos, and clean energy technology champions are scrambling to secure the tax breaks and loan guarantees they’ve depended on over the past decade to drive investments.
Cheap natural gas is beating renewables as the lowest-cost option for meeting the nation’s thirst for new electricity.
Scathing media reports have also raised questions about whether the Obama administration favored its green-tinted campaign contributors with federal stimulus dollars and wound up sending upward of three-quarters of the subsidies to companies that are now based overseas.
And when the industry does show signs of life, wildlife advocates and environmentalists have been making it difficult by blocking transmission lines to get the clean energy to urban centers.
Moderating an Import-Export Bank conference panel earlier last month alongside several top energy industry executives, Carol Browner, President Barack Obama’s former top energy adviser, bemoaned the lack of a long-term market signal to help renewables. Without private entrepreneurs, she said, the already small U.S. market could be swamped by foreign competitors.
“This is an industry evolving rapidly, whether it be on the supply or demand side,” Browner said. “From my perspective, on the public policy side, we need to do more to ensure there is demand for the technology. We are in danger of not being at the forefront of the industry. It’s because of people like this we’re at least able to hold on.”
John Denniston, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, sounded off on the disparity, too, ticking through the top 20 renewable energy companies in the world and noting that just four are American.
Exactly what the federal government can do is a question.
Obama promised to put solar panels on the White House roof last year and has continued to talk up renewable energy. During a visit earlier this month to a wind turbine manufacturer in suburban Philadelphia, Obama pledged to keep up the fight to make the renewable industry’s tax credits permanent — rather than leave them exposed to the often last-minute dash for renewal.
“I want to kick-start this industry,” the president said. “I want to make sure it’s got good customers, and I want to make sure the financing is there to meet that demand.”
But several market experts doubt Obama can live up to his promises. While the solar tax credits are secure through 2016, wind will see some of its most cherished benefits expire at the end of 2012, just after the presidential campaign.
“We’ve seen this movie a number of times,” said Rob Gramlich, senior vice president for public policy at the American Wind Energy Association.
Some of the long-term options are also no longer looked at so kindly on Capitol Hill, either.
Former Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici had once floated the idea of establishing a “green bank” that would put financial experts in place in the evaluation of clean energy projects. A similar idea is now a centerpiece of the Democrats’ energy plan, which makes it more likely to fall to partisan sniping.
“The Republicans are calling it a Fannie and Freddie for clean energy, but they don’t mean it in a nice way,” said Kevin Book, managing director of the Washington research firm ClearView Energy Partners.
Renewable advocates insist they long ago gave up on the idea of pricing carbon emissions as a way to get a toehold against their coal, natural gas and nuclear rivals. Now, they’ve put their eggs in another basket: the “clean” energy standard that Obama mentioned in January’s State of the Union speech.
But even here, their preferred policy approach appears to be stuck in congressional low gear.
“I think the door is cracked open and therefore worth pursuing,” Gramlich said.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton may be the biggest barrier to a “clean” energy standard. He opposes federal mandates and has shown no interest in responding to the issue, even if the Senate somehow were to come up with 60 votes on legislation.
In an interview, the Michigan Republican insisted that he wants to expand the nation’s renewable portfolio. But he quickly ticked through a number of the industry’s downsides.
“Solar would be dead without the extension of the tax credits about a year and a half ago,” he said. “So they continue to push out.”
Upton also took issue with local activists and environmentalists who have made it more difficult to get wind energy into the transmission system by challenging various transmission projects.
“That’s the dilemma,” he said. “You’ve got different groups challenging the building to improve the grid. It’s a problem.”
Despite the hurdles, industry officials see themselves in a strong light.
Wind produces about 2 percent of the nation’s electricity. That’s up from less than 1 percent in 2005, with turbines now churning out more than 40,000 megawatts of power — enough to supply electricity to more than 10 million homes.
Solar power is in its own camp. It still hovers below 1 percent of the nation’s energy pie. Its small size makes its growth look even bigger. Investments jumped from $3.6 billion to $6 billion last year. As of 2010, there’s more than 1,000 megawatts of installed capacity, up from 320 megawatts in 2008.
“We’re the fastest-growing industry in the United States, period,” said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industry Association.
Indeed, both wind and solar can point to some useful figures as they try to sway political doubters. In 2010, 14 wind manufacturing plants opened, giving the industry 20,000 jobs stretched across 42 states. Fifty-eight new solar panel factories have opened in the past 18 months. Solar officials tout a similar number of jobs spread across 47 states.
Industry observers say wind and solar, while in different camps in terms of recent growth, can at least take heart in the policies they have been able to latch onto.
“It could have been worse,” Book said. “It could have been the case there was no stimulus to spend. It could have been the case that there was no grant program. It could have been the case there was no production tax credit.”
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