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The Right Climate for a President-Elect
As Obama announces his choice for Energy Secretary and Climate Czar
today, the co-founder of the Earth Day celebration 38 years ago,
Denis Hayes, challenges the conventional wisdom about the
climate/energy crisis. It is, he says, a tremendous opportunity.
BOULDER, CO – 12/15/08 – A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Or so says Denis Hayes in the January/February cover story of SOLAR TODAY magazine.
Mr. Hayes, the former Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory under the Carter Administration and co-founder of Earth Day, offers some timely advice and surprising recommendations for President-elect Obama and the new Energy Secretary and Climate Czar, who were officially announced today.
Read an advance copy of Mr. Hayes’ article at: www.solartoday.org/hayes
“Any serious program to limit greenhouse gas emissions has to cap carbon at the 2,000 places where it enters the U.S. economy (coal mines, oil fields, pipelines, ports) – not the millions of places where it leaves our smokestacks and tailpipes,” says Mr. Hayes.
And contrary to conventional wisdom, a cap-and-trade policy is not the best approach to address climate issues.
“It’s critical that all carbon permits be auctioned – not given away. In Europe, emissions permits were given away to large carbon users to ease their transition to the new trading regime,” Hayes writes. “This gave windfalls to the worst polluters, penalized companies that already had invested in efficient new factories and renewable energy, and helped guarantee that Europe would miss its Kyoto targets.”
In this new article, Mr. Hayes offers detailed advice on how to combine smart climate policy and smart energy policy with sound financial policy – a “moral equivalent of war.” And he summed up the challenge ahead.
“It’s not too late for the United States to help lead the world into a carbon-free solar era, but it will take national commitment on the scale seen during World War II.”
Read the full article from SOLAR TODAY at: www.solartoday.org/hayes
About SOLAR TODAY
SOLAR TODAY is the award-winning magazine produced by the American Solar Energy Society, the nonprofit organization leading the renewable energy revolution since 1954.
www.solartoday.org | www.ases.org
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