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Clean Tech Business Policy Update (November 3)

by Fatima Khan — last modified November 04, 2011 12:19 AM
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Government & Politics

Science, Jobs, & Investment

  • New Technologies Redraw the World’s Energy Picture / New York Times
  • Solar Power Industry Falls Short of Hopes in Job Creation / New York Times
  • U.S. Solar Panel Makers Say China Violated Trade Rules / New York Times
  • Solyndra not the Only Photovoltaic Firm on the Rocks / MarketWatch

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Green Tech Venture Investments Jumped 23% in Q3/ Forbes, October 5
Investors doled out $2.23 billion for 189 green tech venture deals worldwide in the third quarter and counted energy storage, solar and energy efficiency as their top three picks, according to preliminary data from the Cleantech Group.

In Clean Tech, Venture Capital Looks for Problem-Solvers/ New York Times, October 26
In Silicon Valley, where venture capital dollars nurture fledgling technology companies, clean tech is getting a makeover. Many investors are shying away from the high risks and costs of creating new forms of energy. Instead, they are doing what they do best — using software to cope with problems, in this case caused by climate change ... Investors, accustomed to financing low-cost Web start-ups, had grown wary of spending the money needed to pay for basic research and build factories to produce energy. Adding to their caution is uncertainty over whether Congress will exact a carbon tax, an increase in natural gas production in the United States and the difficulty of competing with the established energy industry.

Where Did Global Warming Go?/ New York Times Editorial, October 15
In 2008, both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president, Barack Obama and John McCain, warned about man-made global warming and supported legislation to curb emissions … But two years later, now that nearly every other nation accepts climate change as a pressing problem, America has turned agnostic on the issue … The number of Americans who believe the earth is warming dropped to 59 percent last year from 79 percent in 2006 … This fading of global warming from the political agenda is a mostly American phenomenon … Conservatives, rather than posing an obstacle, are directing aggressive climate policies in much of the world … In the United States, the right wing of the Republican Party has managed to turn skepticism about man-made global warming into a requirement for electability, forming an unlikely triad with antiabortion and gun-rights beliefs.

Clean Energy in California: Cap-and-Trade Moves Forward/ The Economist, October 29
The European Union already has a emissions-trading market, and a carbon tax is now wending its way through the Australian legislature. Even India and China have adopted versions of carbon taxes or emissions trading. But California is in America, which has taken a sharp turn in the opposite direction. Congress debated a cap-and-trade system in 2009, but then allowed it to die. Republicans attacked it as “cap-and-tax”, and increasingly deny that climate change is a problem at all. Some even point to the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a Californian maker of solar panels which had received lots of federal money, as proof that renewable energy is a wasteful pinko pipe-dream. But California is staying its course.

Government & Politics

Romney Flips To Denial: ‘We Don’t Know What’s Causing Climate Change’/ Think Progress, October 28
Speaking at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney reversed his earlier stance on climate change pollution and rejected man-made global warming. Because “we don’t know what’s causing climate change,” Romney said, the United States should not reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In a early 2011 book positioning his run for the presidency, Romney wrote, “I believe that climate change is occurring — the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. … Scientists are nearly unanimous in laying the blame for rising temperatures on greenhouse gas emissions.”

How Global Warming Fell Off the National Agenda/ Time Magazine, October 20
We know exactly why climate chaos has fallen off the national agenda. We’ve let it happen. And by “we” I mean everyone from environmentalists to doctors to scientists to teachers to politicians to parents. There’s no one else to blame.

Solyndra Aftermath: Top Ten Reasons Why Clean Energy Wins / Greentech Media & Huffington Post, Sept. 28
(OpEd by Payne, Fowler, Kennedy, Harvey, McCalmont, & Shah)
10. A job is a job is a job. Solar jobs grew 6.8% this past year.
9. Fastest growing sector of the economy. Growth is a good for everyone.
8. The voters are ahead of the politicians and the media.
7. It is about prices and solar prices are dropping.
6. Follow the (private) money.
5. Existing policies will make solar energy affordable for millions Americans by 2015. 
4. A truly competitive free market favors solar over the oil and coal welfare queens.
3. Our military loves it.
2 . Solar in a box … off the shelf and right to your home.
1. Solar will win because we love our own nuclear power plant:
the one, the only, the original … 93 million miles away.

The Right Lessons From Solyndra (OpEd by Carl Guardino)/ Politico, October 16
In defiance of Occam’s razor, everyone’s missing the simplest point: Solyndra is one of many government clean-technology investments. Like any investment portfolio, some projects succeed and others fail. Solyndra failed.

Solyndra in the Public’s Mind / FM3 & POS Bipartisan Polling Team, September 26

  • Thus far, Solyndra is still news junkie fodder and not dinner table conversation.
  • We have seen nothing to indicate an impact on views of clean energy broadly, or solar specifically.
  • When presented with arguments that attempt to use Solyndra to indict public investments in clean energy more broadly, voters reject them.
  • Descriptions of the successes of the American solar industry offer a strong rebuttal to criticisms of Solyndra.
  • Solyndra does pose a potential problem for future public investments in clean energy, since it further fuels general skepticism about government’s fiscal decisions.
  • While we have thus far found great consistency around the country in reactions to this issue, opinions are likely to shift as the issue unfolds, and may vary among subgroups of the electorate and by geographic location.

Dems, GOP Sort of Agree on Chinese Solar/ Politico, October 28
In an unusual showing of bipartisan harmony, House Democrats and Republicans agree on the need to investigate the massive subsidies China is using to dominate the global solar industry while hurting U.S. manufacturers. Of course, the next step is a matter of debate. Republican Chairman Cliff Stearns recommends taking it right up to the World Trade Organization. But Senior Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman said a direct conflict could lead to tariffs and ultimately a trade war. "The best way to win trade wars is to out-compete.' [Yes, you did  read that right. The Republican wants to turn to an international government organization and the Democrat wants to compete to win in the market.]

GOP 2012 agenda: What Energy Debate?/ Politico, October 18
“All of the above” — a phrase left over from John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign — is the exact phrase that six of this year’s eight major Republican candidates have used to describe their energy proposals. As a running line, “all of the above” emphasizes oil, coal and natural gas for near-term energy generation and positions clean energy technology such as solar and wind power as potential future sources … And despite industry reports that the solar business is booming, Solyndra has proven to be a talking point for Republicans when they argue that the government should stay out of clean energy investment.

Republican Environmental Group Seeks To Put Conservation Back On The Conservative Agenda/ Huffington Post, October 20
Many in the G.O.P. long ago rejected environmental protection no matter where or how it is applied -- and they have done so to the dismay of Sisson and like-minded Republican voters. They often point to Russell Kirk, the conservative political theorist, who famously quipped "Nothing is more conservative than conservation."  Sisson says too many Republicans today are willing to turn their backs on sensible conservation measures -- even measuresthey once supported -- if it's politically expedient. "It's an unfortunate symptom of our times, how politicized and how polarized the politics has become," he said.

Maine Clean Energy Coalition Launches 20-BY-2020 Ballot Initiative/ Think Progress, October 27
Maine Citizens for Clean Energy, a new coalition of businesses, environmental groups, and public health advocates, has launched a petition drive to get a 2012 ballot initiative for a renewable electricity standard in the state of 20 percent by 2020. “The status quo threatens our health and environment, burdens our economy, and is an enormous risk to Maine’s prosperity,” the coalition warns.

Why the U.S. Should Not Abandon Its Clean Energy Lending Programs / Brookings, September 27
With the bankruptcy of the California solar-gear manufacturer Solyndra, the Department of Energy (DOE)’s loan program has been excoriated for wasting tax payer money under suspicious circumstances. The program’s website refers to 63,000 jobs created with $38.6 billion of loans. Some, like those at the Washington Post, see this number and incorrectly conclude that the government has spent $600,000 per job. Others cite the size of the loan guarantee to Solyndra—$535 million—and mistakenly equate it with the taxpayer bill for one company’s failed enterprise.

Steve Jobs’ Advice for Obama/ Wall Street Journal, October 30
Apple's founder on Obama: "The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can't get done. It infuriates me." The culture of Silicon Valley is defined by engineers who approach problems logically, searching for the most elegant solution. Washington is different. Members of both parties prefer scoring political points on immigration even though this delays smarter approaches. It's no wonder that people like Jobs who value innovation find Washington so infuriating.

Business, Science, & Investment

New Technologies Redraw the World’s Energy Picture/ New York Times, October 26
Unconventional fossil fuels extracted by new technologies should shift geopolitical and economic calculations around the world in the coming decades. The United States may now have the means to reduce its half century of dependence on the Middle East. China and India may have the means to fuel the development of their growing middle classes. Japan and much of Europe may have the chance to reduce dependence on nuclear power. And, at least theoretically, poor African countries might be able to lift themselves out of poverty.  But giving new life to fossil fuels is a devil’s bargain, probably making solutions to climate change, and the development of renewable energy, even more difficult.

Solar Power Industry Falls Short of Hopes in Job Creation/ New York Times, October 25
Government help for solar power was supposed to be a triple play: jobs at a time of dire short-term need; incubation of an American industry sure to be important on a global scale in the next few years; and a long-term reduction in climate-changing pollution … Renewable energy is recognized as representing a hedge against future shifts in the prices of fuels and the strictness of pollution regulations. But the effect on jobs is murkier. “Net jobs” is seldom mentioned.

U.S. Solar Panel Makers Say China Violated Trade Rules/ New York Times, Oct. 19
Seven American makers of solar panels filed a broad trade case in Washington against the Chinese solar industry on Wednesday, accusing it of using billions of dollars in government subsidies to help gain sales in the American market.  The companies also accused China of dumping solar panels in the United States for less than it costs to manufacture and ship them.  The trade case, filed at the Commerce Department, seeks tariffs of more than 100 percent of the wholesale price of solar panels from China ... “This had nothing to do with any input from either side of the aisle” in Congress, nor was it influenced by the Obama administration," SolarWorld's president stated ... SolarWorld said it was representing a newly formed trade association, the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing. An existing trade group, Solar Energy Industries Association, is deeply split over trade actions against China, because it includes American subsidiaries of Chinese solar manufacturers and American companies that sell raw materials and factory equipment to Chinese makers of solar panels.  See also, Six of Seven Companies Stay Anonymous in Solar Trade Case, NYTimes < http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/business/global/six-complainants-in-solar-trade-case-are-unnamed.html?src=recg >

Solyndra not the Only Photovoltaic Firm on the Rocks / MarketWatch, September 15
While Solyndra remains in the spotlight because of its bankruptcy filing after a $535 million federal loan guarantee, it’s not the only manufacturer of solar power modules to go belly up as prices of photovoltaics continue to drop.

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