ABOUT THAT NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW ENERGY BOOM

In 2007, New Hampshire established a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring the state’s utilities to obtain 25% of their power from New Energy sources by 2025. It includes a “solar carve-out” requiring a small but specific portion of the required New Energy to be solar.

Subsequently, the New Energy industries in general and the solar energy industry in particular began expanding in the state. NH now has 30+ solar businesses and is still adding them.

Government policy is determinative in what energies a state or a nation develops. The U.S. would not have been the biggest oil power of the 1st half of the 20th century without government policies that kept the oil industry from strangling itself in an unfettered free market.

In the 1930s, the Texas Railroad Commission balanced production with consumption and kept prices from falling untenably low.

In the 1940s, Harold Ickes mediated between the Roosevelt administration, Big Oil and the independent oil companies to provide necessary price adjustments and build the necessary infrastrucutre. It allowed U.S. oil to fuel the allied victory in World War II.

In the 1950s, the “oil depletion allowance” made it possible for U.S. independents to compete against foreign imports. The “Golden Gimmick” made it possible for Big Oil to keep exploiting foreign fields even as the nations they were exploiting began demanding a fair share of the returns.

Recently, the New Energy industries have begun demanding a share of the support the government has long provided to the oil industry.

According to New Energy authorities Jim Callihan and Paul Gromer, the tax credits for which Democrats are this week fighting in Congress on behalf of New Energy represent “…less than 1 percent of the $40 billion per year we pay to subsidize fossil fuel industries…”

Yet Congress has, in the last 16 months, refused to extend the credits 8 times. They expire at the end of 2008. The objection to extending them has been, and continues to be, that their cost will be subtracted from the subsidies still available to the oil industry despite the oil industry’s huge profits in recent years.

It is estimated the U.S. will see a loss of 116,000 jobs and $19 billion in investment through 2009 if New Energy’s tax credits are not extended. Industry-watchers are already reporting a dramatic fall-off in new project development domestically and extensive gearing up for activity in Europe, Japan and China where government policy strongly supports New Energy.

A recent poll showed that while perhaps 2/3 of the country advocates new oil drilling, more than 90% advocates New Energy development.

Here’s an interesting question for moderate Republicans, especially those up for re-election: What is the likelihood that the 2/3 who want drilling are the Republican base, whose votes you already have, and conservative Democrats, whose votes you aren’t likely to get?

And what if the rest of that 90+%, those who want want New Energy, is liberal Democrats you can forget about and the swing vote you so desperately crave?

And what if word gets out, oh, say through websites like NewEnergyNews, that you voted for drilling but denied the public the New Energy it wants?

New Energy advocates in Washington, D.C., say this week, maybe today, is the Big Moment for the tax credits. Without Congressional action, they will expire at the end of the year and cause what might be the country’s last booming industries to go south for 2009.

Tell Congress to represent 90+% of the electorate and vote YES on the Baucus/Grassley amendment and YES on H.R. 6049 at the American Wind Energy Association’s POWER OF WIND or the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Take Action

A recent study showed extension of the tax credits will produce tremendous new investment. (click to enlarge)

New Hampshire can lead the nation in boosting solar energy
Jim Callihan and Paul Gromer, September 22, 2008 (Concord Monitor)

WHO
Jim Callihan, co-founder/president, RenewableEnergyWorld.com; Paul Gromer, executive director, Solar Energy Business Association of New England and president, Peregrine Energy Group; John Lynch, Governor, NH;

WHAT
New Hampshire’s growth in New Energy and solar capacity demonstrates the potential of the New Energy industries, if properly supported by government policy, to unleash a new U.S. economic expansion.

click to enlarge

WHEN
- 2007 U.S. solar industry investment: $10 billion
- 2007 U.S. solar industry-related jobs created: 6,000+
- 2007 solar industry manufacturing growth: 74%
- June 10, 2008 poll: 94% of Americans strongly support development/use of solar resources (Kelton Research)

WHERE
- Callihan’s RenewableEnergyWorld.com is based in Peterborough, NH.
- Gromer’s Peregrine Energy Group is based in Boston.
- They discussed New Hampshire's New Energy potential.

WHY
- NH has 30+ solar manufacturers, installers and dealers and that number is growing.
A solar manufacturing plant creates (approximately) twice the number of jobs of a coal plant of similar scale.
- Callihan and Gromer point out that NH Republican Senators Sununu and Gregg are in a position to assist their home state’s solar and other New Energy industries by developing bipartisan legislation.
- The tax credits in need of extension: (1) A production tax credit (PTC) for wind, biomass, geothermal and solar power plants, (2) an longer-term investment tax credit (ITC) for residential and business solar systems, (3) a credit for making homes and buildings more energy efficient and (4) a credit for purchasing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and for using “carbon neutral” vehicle fuels.

NH also has pockets of good wind capacity. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Callihan and Gromer: It is imperative that we invest our tax dollars wisely, not on the behalf of the oil barons who already report billions in profits while we suffer at the pump, but rather on behalf of the American public who want to see further investment in clean energy and will benefit from tens of thousands of green-tech jobs…”
- Callihan and Gromer: Solar energy is great for our economy and our energy independence. Our leaders can make a big impact by supporting and passing this common-sense policy now.