The Federal government should:
- Provide long-term extension of tax incentives for renewable energy production and energy efficiency. Establish incentives for the construction and purchase of super fuel efficient autos such as plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.
- Set a national renewable electricity standard for utilities to produce a significant portion of
their electricity from wind, solar, and geothermal energy. This should be at least 20% by
2020. It would reduce consumers’ energy costs, energy price volatility and greenhouse gas
emissions. - Establish, enforce and update building code standards for energy efficiency in new and
retrofitted buildings to save consumers money and reduce fossil fuel use. Provide incentives
for efficiency related renovations Reduce building energy use by 50% by 2030. - Put a price on carbon pollution, through a cap-and-trade program or other means.
- Modernize and expand the nation’s electrical grid to make it smart and more secure, and
capable of transferring or storing clean renewable energy in combination with electric
vehicles, while providing greater access to such resources in an environmentally responsible
way. - Provide the technical and financial resources for a transition of states, like Nevada, and/or
small countries around the world to be completely energy independent and carbon neutral
to serve as an example of how these goals can be achieved. - Act swiftly to increase the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, and increase funding for
private-public partnerships to build a transportation sector that uses far less or no oil. - Buy, and give significant incentives to consumers and small businesses to buy, clean
alternative fuel and plug-in hybrid vehicles. This should include natural gas heavy-duty
fleet vehicles. - Initiate electrification of our entire transportation sector so it uses only clean domestic
energy soon. - Fully fund and expand a green jobs/clean energy corps program to weatherize millions of
homes, train workers for new energy technology application, build a smart grid, etc. - Provide incentives to states to decouple utility profits from electricity sales to encourage
significant new investments in energy efficiency, and ensure net metering and “time of use”
pricing/real time information is available. - Create a Federal clean energy fund to invest in research, development and deployment of
efficiency and renewable technologies. - Encourage or direct utilities to organize the retrofitting of existing buildings to become
significantly more energy efficient - Expedite identification and reservation of Federal public lands that have high potential for
the environmentally responsible production of renewable electricity, and improving
permitting processes for clean energy production on such lands. - Vastly increase the budget for clean energy research, development and deployment,
including greater emphasis on commercializing research funded by taxpayers. - Greatly increase investments in public transit to make it more affordable and accessible.
- Fully fund and expand LIHEAP, low income weatherization and Energy & Environmental
Block Grant programs. - Reduce Federal government energy consumption by half within the next fifteen years.
- Fund research into carbon capture and storage technology that can dramatically reduce
carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants. - Speed the transition from corn based ethanol to sustainable biofuels such as cellulosic
ethanol made from wood chips, agriculture waste, and switch grass. This could include a
joint US-Brazilian investment in sugar cane ethanol in the Caribbean, which would create
jobs in this developing region. - Convert solid waste landfills so that they produce waste heat, biofuels or fertilizer from
methane emissions or organic materials. - Assist China and India and other developing nations with their adoption of clean energy
technologies.
States Should Consider Policies to:
- Require all new state government buildings to be LEED certified.
- Convert state vehicle fleets to clean alternative fuels.
- Create incentives for renewable energy by lowering property taxes for these facilities, and
exempting them from sales tax. - Require that homeowner associations allow solar panels and other renewable technologies.
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More on the National Clean Energy Summit
The National Clean Energy Summit was sponsored by Senator Harry Reid, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the University of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tags: CAP Action, CAPAF, Center for American Progress Action Fund, National Clean Energy Project, NCEP
