US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid calls for energy policy roadmap to spur investment

2 Sep 2010

US Senate Majority leader and Nevada Senator Harry Reid and prominent figures from the nation’s power industry have called for a renewable energy policy roadmap to allow businesses to plan investments into the clean energy sector.

The appeal was made as a result of talks held today between Reid and the fund body of the organisation responsible for disseminating a new report that ranks states in terms of policy leadership on energy efficiency.

‘The private sector depends on policy makers to provide an overarching energy policy roadmap,’ said CEO of electricity utility PG&E Peter Darbee, who joined Reid in the talks.

Senator Reid said the road to a clean energy economy will be built with smart policies that will attract private investment in the development of clean energy and energy efficiency.

Darbee said that an energy policy roadmap would allow utility companies to plan for the long-term and make major capital investments now.

Chair of Energy Resource Management Bill Campbell and Center for American Progress Action Fund fellow Bracken Hendricks joined Reid and Darbee to discuss the analysis, which was co-authored by the Center for American Progress and Energy Resource Management.

Hendricks said, ‘This report shows how a number of states are already hard at work using smart energy policies to jump start the market for energy efficiency jobs and new investments to make their economies more competitive.

‘A relatively small federal investment can attract billions of dollars of private capital by incentivising bank lending, and firms again hiring construction and manufacturing workers. State leadership has provided a critical foundation, but the federal government can provide needed leadership. Private investment and job creation will follow,’ Hendricks added.

The report ranks Nevada as the fifth nation in terms of smart energy efficiency policies and as one of those states positioned at the forefront of the emerging industry.

‘The Recovery Act planted critical seeds for our clean energy economy, but what we need now is to continue smart policies that help private investment to take over, and make these early seeds blossom into tens of thousands of jobs and a much more secure economy,’ said Reid.

Chair of Energy Resource Management Campbell said the country should treat energy efficiency as though it were a resource in itself, in the same way that it treats new power generation projects.

He said, ‘If we invest in smarter buildings as a source of clean energy – by reducing demand on our energy grid – we get the same benefit as building new power plants, but we also create substantially more jobs and share the benefits of that investment more broadly across the economy.’

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One Response to “US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid calls for energy policy roadmap to spur investment”

Archie Medes says:

24 October 2010 at 10:16 pm

US Senate Majority leader and Nevada Senator Harry Reid along with prominent figures have taken a step in the right direction here though it may be primarily out of their desire to create larger profits and not gains in the clean energy sector it is still a welcome idea.