This morning, at the crack of dawn, Green Energy Reporter caught a flight out of Chicago for Washington to attend the Renewable Energy Technology Conference, also known as RETECH.
Just about anyone involved in the renewable energy food chain seems to have converged to the Washington Convention Center to attend the two-day event. Exchanging business cards over coffee and lunch are a myriad of policy makers, industry lobbyist and executives.
When not trying to figure out whether to leave town tonight, to beat the blizzard that’s expected to blanket the region tomorrow, RETECH attendees are also asking questions on cap-and-trade and in particular if it has a chance of ever becoming law of the land.
Unlike some of our more dire predictions, industry pros we’ve talked to since arriving in town are definitely more upbeat.
The consensus is that some form of carbon pricing provision, it could be Cap-and-trade, will likely be inserted it into one of the climate change and energy bills currently making their way through the Senate. And based on yesterday’s outburst by Senator Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.), support for the carbon-cutting, scheme might actually run deeper than we’ve ever imagined.
Jim Presswood, federal energy policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told a panel that of all the green policies, cap-and-trade remained the most important. “Cap-and-trade is a critical component to any long-term renewable energy policy,” he said.
Presswood later told us that he does not believe cap-and-trade is dead. “We will see something emerge, we are not pessimistic on cap-and-trade.”
One alternative to cap-and-trade is the CLEAR Act, proposed in December by Senators Maria Cantwell, (D-Wash.), and Susan Collins, (R-Maine). The legislation is also dubbed cap-and-dividends because it would sell emission permits to polluters but would use a lot of the proceeds to send checks, averaging $100, to every American. These dividends would in effect help offset the expected higher cost of energy in a carbon-constrained world.
Jeff Anderson, executive director with the Clean Economy Network, an industry trade group in Washington, concedes that while CLEAR has largely been ignored by the media, in the halls of Congress, where as an industry lobbyist he spends a lot of time, “there is a lot of traction for the legislation.”
He warns though that CLEAR has not yet gone through the legislative pressure cooker and it could end up being a lot more complicated and a lot less attractive once it’s been dissected by Congress.
CLEAR and its dividend program, says Anderson could, void of a comprehensive climate change bill, be tucked into an energy and jobs bill.