Obama Delivers a Real Energy Plan for America: Efficiency Now, 10% Renewables by 2012, One Million Plug-ins by 2015

Senator Barack Obama has fulfilled the promise of his earlier climate plan with a detailed and comprehensive "New Energy for America" plan.

This is easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party. By comparison, the plan of John "Nothing but Nukes" McCain is a joke, with nothing on energy efficiency and a pointless $300 million battery prize and long-standing opposition to renewable energy. In contrast, Obama's plan has real depth and breath:

• Increase Fuel Economy Standards: Obama will increase fuel economy standards 4 percent per each year while protecting the financial future of domestic automakers....


• Invest in Developing Advanced Vehicles and Put 1 Million Plugin Electric Vehicles on the Road by 2015: As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama has led efforts to jumpstart federal investment in advanced vehicles, including combined plug‐in hybrid/flexible fuel vehicles, which can get over 150 miles per gallon of gas... [more details below]


• Partner with Domestic Automakers: Obama will also provide $4 billion retooling tax credits and
  loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that the new fuel‐efficient
  cars can be built in the U.S. by American workers rather than overseas.


• Mandate All New Vehicles are Flexible Fuel Vehicles


• Develop the Next Generation of Sustainable Biofuels and Infrastructure


• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard: ... The standard requires fuels suppliers in 2010 to begin to reduce the carbon of their fuel by 5 percent within 5 years and 10 percent within 10 years.
  

This is the only way to jumpstart an end to our addiction to oil in a climate friendly way. Indeed, an accelerated transition to plug-in hybrids and electric cars -- a core climate solution-- must be the cornerstone of any serious effort to dramatically reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (see "Why electricity is the only alternative fuel that can lead to energy independence"). That is the crucial litmus test for any presidential candidate's energy independence or clean transportation policy.

As for the test of a candidate's grasp of electricity policy, energy efficiency is obviously The only cheap power left and a limitless resource and THE core climate solution. Obama understands energy efficiency in a way few other major politicians do, as his plan makes clear:

• Deploy the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Energy Source--Energy Efficiency: Barack Obama will set an aggressive energy efficiency goal--to reduce electricity demand 15 percent from DOE's projected levels by 2020. Implementing this program will save consumers a total of $130 billion, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5 billion tons through 2030, and create jobs. A portion of this goal would be met by setting annual demand reduction targets that utilities would need to meet.


• Set National Building Efficiency Goals: Obama will establish a goal of making all new buildings carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030. He'll also establish a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help us meet the 2030 goal.


• Overhaul Federal Efficiency Standards: The current Department of Energy has missed 34 deadlines for setting updated appliance efficiency standards....


• Reduce Federal Energy Consumption: ... He will make the federal government a leader in the green building market, achieving a 40 percent increase in efficiency in all new federal buildings within five years and ensuring that all new federal buildings are zero‐emissions by 2025. He will invest in cost‐effective retrofits to achieve a 25 percent increase in efficiency of existing federal buildings within 5 years.


• Invest in a Smart Grid: ... Obama will pursue a major investment in our national utility grid using smart metering, distributed storage and other advanced technologies to accommodate 21st century energy requirements: greatly improved electric grid reliability and security, a tremendous increase in renewable generation and greater customer choice and energy affordability.


• Weatherize One Million Homes Annually....


• Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities....


• Flip Incentives to Energy Utilities: An Obama administration will "flip" incentives to utility companies by: requiring states to conduct proceedings to implement incentive changes; and offering them targeted technical assistance. These measures will benefit utilities for improving energy efficiency, rather than just from supporting higher energy consumption. This "regulatory equity" starts with the decoupling of profits from increased energy usage, which will incentivize utilities to partner with consumers and the federal and state governments to reduce monthly energy bills for families and businesses. The federal government under an Obama administration will play an important and positive role in flipping the profit model for the utility sector so that shareholder profit is based on reliability and performance as opposed to total production.

Finally, a presidential nominee that really gets it (see "Energy efficiency, Part 4: How does California do it so consistently and cost-effectively?").

The proposal has lots of other details on short-term solutions and promoting the supply of domestic energy. But let me focus on his low-carbon electricity supply plan:

• Require 10 Percent of Electricity to Come from Renewable Sources by 2012 [and 25 percent by 2025]. Barack Obama will establish a 10 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 10 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2012. Many states are already well on their way to achieving statewide goals and it's time for the federal government to provide leadership for the entire country to support these new industries. This national requirement will spur significant private sector investment in renewable sources of energy and create thousands of new American jobs, especially in rural areas. And Obama will also extend the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for 5 years to encourage the production of renewable energy.


• Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology....


• Safe and Secure Nuclear Energy: ... It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option. However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation.... As president, Obama will make safeguarding nuclear material both abroad and in the U.S. a top anti‐terrorism priority. In terms of waste storage, Obama does not believe that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site. He will lead federal efforts to look for safe, long‐term disposal solutions based on objective, scientific analysis. In the meantime, Obama will develop requirements to ensure that the waste stored at current reactor sites is contained using the most advanced dry‐cask storage technology available.

He also repeats his climate pledge and his jobs pledge:

• Implement an economy‐wide cap‐and‐trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.


• Invest In A Clean Energy Economy and Help Create 5 Million New Green Jobs. Obama will strategically invest $150 billion over 10 years...

Finally, back to the details of the plug-in hybrid proposal:

As president, Obama will continue this leadership by investing in advanced vehicle technology with a specific focus on R&D in advanced battery technology. The increased federal funding will leverage private sector funds and support our domestic automakers to bring plug‐in hybrids and other advanced vehicles to American consumers. Obama will also provide a $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of advanced technology vehicles as well as conversion tax credits. And to help create a market and show government leadership in purchasing highly efficient cars, an Obama administration will commit to:

• Within one year of becoming President, the entire White House fleet will be converted to plug‐ins as security permits; and


• Half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug‐in hybrids or all‐electric by 2012.

This is an aggressive, achievable, and most important of all, a necessary energy plan. Kudos to Senator Obama and his energy team. Maybe he is The One.

Comments

[rtretler]

The Tennessee Valley Authority recently raised its wholesale rate approximately 4%. The reason for the increase was due to two factors. The main reason for the cost was increased costs. TVA generates power with nuclear plants and water. What costs? Coal.
TVA uses coal to generate electricity at eleven plants. They heat water to 1000 degrees to spin a turbine by burning coal. (Concentrated solar power does that, too). Yes, hydroelectric giant TVA uses coal. You don"t believe me? www.tva.gov/power/fossil.htm The cost of coal is going up. Why? Increased demand. We export coal to India and China, to name a couple.
We could easily be victimized by coal speculators, or natural gas speculators, just like we were by oil speculators.
What we need to do is build wind and solar electricity generators. The electric companies are regulated. They have to hold hearings before they can raise rates. Wind and solar sources do not have to belong to the corporations.
I am looking thirty years down the road and I see all of our electricity coming from renewable resources, costs that are stable, safe from speculation. The air is cleaner. Our cars run on electricity. They are all manufactured here by US citizens�or, we can travel thirty years down the road that we are on.
Who are you going to vote for? Vote for McCain and get more drilling and 45 more nuclear power plants. Perhaps, they will decide to store the waste near your house.

[zardinuk]

They problem I see here is that right now biofuels and ethanol and all that are more expensive than even our current expensive fuel, even if the price of fuel doubled again it would just cause more pain and economic troubles, it won't magically transform our transportation infrastructure overnight. Our leaders need to consider that right now rich people can make the transition to clean cars and renewable energy, but the lower income families still need to buy affordable gas, so the responsible thing to do is to both lower fuel prices and provide incentives in the form of tax incentives for the wealthy to buy clean cars. One thing that sets northern california apart from other parts of the nation is that the wealthy are paying $0.35/kwh to keep their massive houses air conditioned, which has forced them to consider solar panels. That is a strategy that could work all over the nation. At $0.35/kwh, solar becomes affordable and the utilities can start providing it.

And off-shore drilling will certainly lower the price of fuel, just talking about it has sent the price lower, I don't have any doubt about that. I think the compromise we're headed for in the congress will be good. Lower the price of fuel while at the same time pushing the economy greener. Again, super high fuel costs are not going to force low income families to buy electric cars, it will force them into unemployment and bankruptcy.

[texfly]

Charging all electricity users an extra $0.03/kWh over 10 years, combined with equal private investment could pay for enough windmills to meet our national electricity needs. - including energy transmission losses and wind variability, and without solar, offshore wind and wave/tidal electricity generation.

With similar "WE the People" investments to other fossil fuel based energy forms we could convert all of our energy consumption sectors (industrial, commercial, residential, transportation) to electric as well. Once installed zero-carbon energy should be relatively inexpensive (about $0.03/kWh after we have a grid and energy storage plan) and a continued rate of 0.10/kWh would generate a return-on-investment of $100 billion per year . Converting all energy consumption sectors to electric (30 trillion-kWh per year) at the same rate of return ($0.07/kWh) about provide $550 billion/year to the 50-50 national and private investment coffers. That means $275 billion/year to the government or about 10% of the current budget.

Zero-carbon energy growth that uses the resources this nation has will satisfy energy needs for generations to come. It will also track population growth. We would likely make a bigger dent in our Federal budget needs especially as the Baby Boom genaeration retires. But do as much as we can as fast as we can. Aside from budgetary sense, the rapid transformation to a zero-carbon economy would decrease world CO2 emissions by 25-35%. How's that for an energy plan?

[rconrad]

Not withstanding your unqualified endorsement, the national media is not giving Obama"s energy plan the attention it deserves. Even the BBC and NPR news shows yesterday and today are trivializing its importance. Recent newspaper and radio reports have focussed on Obama"s "flip-flops" re offshore drilling and tapping the Stategic Petroleum Preserves, and they are paying more attention to McCain"s critiques than they are to Obama"s proposed policies. It is as if the media were so afraid of being accused of bias that they are not reporting on the truly newsworthy stuff that Obama is putting out.

HUFFPOST FOLKS NEED TO CONTACT THEIR NEWS SOURCES AND DEMAND JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY.

[westreal]

Oh, good plan too. lol

[ReElectNoOne]

We also need 100% electric cars. Most daily driving can be done with today's electric vehicle technology and batteries. Detroit made them once then quit when the pressure was off..destroying all the demo vehicles they had on the road in California.

I have more info here: http://www.reelectnoone.com/electric_car.php

In any case, while it is great to provide incentives to auto makers, if people can't afford to buy them there is a road block. For instance, with the rising cost of gas, how much trade in can someone expect when trading for an electric? Can people even get back what they may owe on their current vehicle? Will people start "walking away" from car loans the way they are being forced to do with mortgages today?

There needs to be incentives to allow people to obtain new vehicles, not just for Detroit to build them, and I am NOT talking tax credit, because many people's incomes are so low that a tax credit is useless to them. There needs to be, instead of a "credit" an actual government trade allowance that can be taken at dealers at time of purchase.

[DallasMike]

How can you have 100% electrical cars and decrease electrical out put by 15%?

[leftcoastindy]

He's not counting roof top Solar panels as electricity use.

[nerakami]

They need to run an ad highlighting the approval of top energy experts for Obama's plan...

[JXJASON]

Senator Obama's plan is a very good plan. Barack Obama has my support for this plan and I will vote for Senator Obama in November.

I would like to remind all Republicans that George Bush and the Republican controlled Congress could have started this plan eight years or seven years ago AND DIDN'T.

George Bush, John McCain and most Republicans in Congress should be ashamed of themselves.

Everyone should vote the Republicans out of office in November because the Republicans do not represent anyone except the wealthy.

OBAMA 08

[TNT2008]

There is just no comparison between 0bama and Mc Ca1n. Someone needs to tell the c1intons to get on board and stop playing the same childish games that the repubs are playing. No wonder 0bama wants "no drama" in his campaign. "With 0bama there's NO drama"!

0 2008

[aquarius2001]

() ba ma focuses on developing a plan to help America....McCain just focuses on ()bam a

[Freesia2]

Bumping into you all over the place tonight Mr. Romm - I'd just finished reading this article to my husband and then he flipped on the tv and there you were on NOVA's "Future Car".

Thank you for a very good article. And for the thumbs up for Obama. I do think he's strong in this area and I cringe at the idea that anyone would vote McCain and pass up the opportunity to have Obama implement these ideas as President.

[bludpudding]

If Obama gives the domestic automakers all these tax breaks and incentives, maybe he can pass a law that caps CEOs salaries at 1 million dollars(or less).

[algupta]

Mr. Obama has made suggestions as to what he will do if elected President. It is not a Plan. He has not told us where the money will come from and how much will be spent. Without these details it is not a Plan, it is a wish list, it merely consists of statements that make People feel good and vote for the candidate. Please let me offer you a Plan. Look at it. It only deals with one part of the puzzle, Wind Energy, but it tells you exactly what you can expect and when. If you find this Plan palatable then please endorse it. With your help we can get the US Government do what it should have been doing for decades. This Plan supplements the Plan that Mr. Pickens recently disclosed. We can stop the flow of US dollars abroad and embark on a journey to Energy Indpendence. Remember

"Every guy that ran for president clear back to Nixon said he would make us energy independent, but not one (blank) thing has been done"; claims T Boone Pickens, founder of Mesa Petroleum that challenged the big oil companies. Now, he is investing in wind turbines. Wind energy is clean renewal energy.

You need to go to the following link to read the Plan.
.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/windenergycorporation

Thanks. God Bless you.

[djelimon]

"He has not told us where the money will come from"

Sure he did - tax Big Oil. Didn't you read the PDF? It's linked right in the article.

[djelimon]

Of course, there's nothing wrong with private enterprise getting in on the action.

[TNT2008]

Not doing anything for the past thirty years, twenty-five of which McCain was a member of the Senate, is a very good point to bring to our attention. but that doesn't mean that now is not the time to change and correct the mistakes of the past. Let's make history for our kids and grandkids; let's be the Americans that changed everything for the better..

As far as where the money will come from it occurs to me that with the end of the senseless war George led us into, there will be money by the bucket loads to rebuild the infrastructure of the United States as well as get millions of jobs back into the auto industry building energy efficient cars...........the United States can set the pace and the example on energy. We can be world leaders in many things besides a war. The sky's the limit! Thank you Obama!

[Micaanab]

Where will the money come from????

Obama has said he will raise taxes on the wealthier. McCain is suggesting cutting everyones taxes except the poor. You should question where he will be getting the money.

On another note, if my taxes raised a little (which they shouldn't under his current plan, I would rather pay a little more money during tax time than live in a screwed up economy that is slipping further and further into bankruptcy.

[MissDaphne]

When I read this, it made my hair stand on end.
THIS IS THE REAL DEAL.
we are who we have been waiting for.
thank you, senator obama. you truly do get it.
god bless,
Anita Hatter

[Huffingtonposter231]

A few comments.

Obama is an impressive speaker.

I think they hit a home run in coming up with an inclusive and specific energy plan.

His energy plan has some huge problems however and I don't care for a socialist nanny state so I've moved half my assets into foreign funds and if he wins, I'm moving another 25% overseas cause if he gets his way, it's going to get so ugly you folks telling us things are terrible will look back at these as the "good old days".

[djelimon]

"His energy plan has some huge problems however and I don't care for a socialist nanny state "

Might I suggest a right-wing South American nation? The state will not coddle you there, guaranteed.

[RickO]

Which "foreign funds"? If you're investing in European markets, they are already way ahead of us on energy and general nanny-ness, which is working quite well by the way. How about China maybe? Wait, American-made cars do not even meet Chinese standards but you have to watch out for comrade-nanny. How about the South asian markets? Not so much nanny-ness but lots of poverty and a fun caste system. Of course there are the emerging middle east markets. If you can make it from the airport to the hotel alive, not so bad, as long as you are a male and devout muslim. Where will you find the least nanny-ness? I hear Mogadishu is nice this time of year.

I'll take my chances right here.

[DFutureIsNow]

Obama Has A Plan McCain Has Smears. Easiest Choice Ever.

OBAMA 08