U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Dec. 11 used the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to tout
the Obama administration's track record on clean energy, but stressed that
ultimately solutions will be pioneered by the private sector.
"I am proud to say that since taking office, President Obama has already
done more to mitigate climate change than any president in U.S.
history," Locke told the delegates. "One of his first acts in office
was to sign a Recovery Act that included $80 billion in clean energy
investments that will help double America's
renewable energy-generating capacity in three years, while creating thousands
of good jobs."
Locke also said Obama announced the week of Nov. 30 that "the United
States would commit to a 17 percent
reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 over 2005 levels and an 83
percent reduction by 2050."
In a wide-ranging speech, Locke told the delegates that innovative
government policies alone would not stem the tide of global warming. Instead,
he said, "a preeminent goal of government energy policies needs to be
making it as easy as possible for private-sector people to develop new energy
solutions and bring them to market.
"We have a long way to go."
Locke also said, "Perhaps the original idea for these innovations will
come from a government research lab. But if history is any guide, the
commercialization and real-world application of these technologies will be
pioneered by private-sector innovators and entrepreneurs."
Locke said creating those financial incentives is "perhaps the most
important feature of the comprehensive energy and climate legislation supported
by President Obama and recently passed by our U.S. House of
Representatives." The legislation "features a market-based cap on
carbon pollution that will send a surefire market signal to every entrepreneur
and business in America
that it's safe and profitable to make long-term investments in clean
energy," he said.
"Unsurprisingly, there are naysayers who claim, without any substantive
evidence, that a market-based cap on carbon emissions will usher in economic
Armageddon," Locke continued "But these claims are unconvincing,
because we have seen similar assertions debunked in an eerily similar version
of our current energy debate."
Earlier, he remarked, "To start, we need to rethink a
variety of harmful incentives that actively work against clean energy
development."
As an example of "wrongheaded" policy, Locke said, "too many
countries subsidize both the production and consumption of fossil fuels."
He argued, "We simply must eliminate financial incentives that work
against clean energy and efficiency, and begin creating new ones that promote
it."
Locke noted that in the 1990s, "the United
States began considering a market-based
approach to curb acid rain pollutants" with opponents estimating that
"compliance would cost business $50 billion a year and lead to sky high
utility bills." However, as it turned out, "addressing acid rain
ended up costing less than 5 percent of industry's estimate" and consumer
electricity rates—adjusted for inflation—"actually declined by almost 20
percent over the next decade and a half," he said.
"The message here is simple: When you get the incentives right, the
private sector can respond with solutions that are both more effective and more
affordable than anyone would have imagined," Locke said.
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