Cleantech industry picks apart Bush speech

U.S. President George W. Bush has called for a cutback on greenhouse gas emissions in the States, but the president may need to prove his words with legislative action to satisfy the cleantech industry.

Bush is calling for a reduction in U.S. greenhouse gases by 18 percent through 2012, and an end to the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

But Monique Hanis of the Solar Energy Industries Association told the Cleantech Group that the president is still saying some of the same things he's said before — about investing in new technology and that the solution is in the future.

"There are us folks in the renewable energy sector that are saying, 'Hey, the technology exists now.' We have off the shelf technology that we can deploy now."

She said there's more than 4 gigawatts of solar projects in the pipeline in the U.S., but that the industry does need help from legislators.

"We have this opportunity to extend the investment tax credits — right now," she said. "They've worked. They've been in play for two years, we've had tremendous growth in solar deployment."

The tax credit program is set to expire at the end of this year, but there are a number of bills working their way through Congress that could extend the renewable incentives (see U.S. solar & wind incentives on the way?).

Previously, the White House has threatened to veto some bills that would have encouraged alternative energy and other clean technologies, but which would have dealt a blow to the oil industry.

One sticking point in the energy bill passed late last year was a proposed $21 billion tax incentive plan that would have pulled that money from a reversal of tax breaks for Big Oil.

That incentive plan, put forward by the House of Representatives, was dropped before the bill ever reached the president's desk.

There could be some hope coming out of the speech, as Tony Kreindler of the Environmental Defense Fund said Bush may have left the door open for a carbon cap and trade system.

"Now, at the end of the day, it's a question whether the president will support that, but we do have a bill in the Congress that's moving pretty quickly," he said.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John Warner, is set to be on the Senate floor in June, according to Kreindler.

The bill would cap greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other facilities, but allow companies to exceed those limits by buying credits from less polluting firms.

It has has faced opposition from the administration in the past, but Kreindler pointed out that while the president said today that he doesn't support taxes or duplicative efforts, there was no sign of him slamming cap and trade in the speech.

"They're moving toward the table here, and they haven't ruled anything out. We're optimistic," said Kreindler.

Another potential bright spot is the president's plan for some cleantech investment.

Bush said his administration would work toward the creation of an international clean technology fund that would help finance low-emissions energy projects in the developing world, but he did not detail the size of the fund or the technologies that would be covered.

Jason Hartke with the U.S. Green Building Council said the industry could be running up against the limitations of a second term presidency.

He said that although there are discussions in Congress, as well as in California, about a market-based carbon trading system, it's not likely get through before this administration's time is up.

"This proposal that the president has offered just doesn't do much until way down the road," said Hartke.

Hartke is another proponent of the Lieberman-Warner bill, which he said would make serious reductions in greenhouse gases.

"President Bush is not talking about halting growth until 2025," he said.

While solar and wind and building code efficiencies got mentions by the president today, Bush is also continuing to stick up for nuclear, noting in his speech that his administration has provided billions of dollars for next generation nuclear energy technologies.

The president took some time to mention the use of coal as well, despite the move in January by the U.S. Department of Energy to dump its big plans for the FutureGen carbon capture and storage project (see FutureGen goes FutureBust).

The DOE said it was moving instead to spread around the ballooning FutureGen budget to a series of smaller projects.

Bush said that next year the government and the private sector plan to dedicate nearly a billion dollars to clean coal research and development.

The president's speech comes on the eve of a meeting of the world's major economies in Paris, where representatives from 16 countries are gathering for the third climate change meeting in a series launched by Bush last September.