Green initiatives in stimulus act not enough

Of the stimulus act's $789 billion, $60 billion will be spent on green
technology (AP Photo/Luis Cruz Hernandez)

Environmentalists have a great deal to be happy about when President Obama, tomorrow, signs the single most expensive economic legislation in U.S history into law. Of the stimulus act’s $789 billion, about $60 billion will be spent on alternative energy, scientific research and diverse environmental projects.

“For years US policymakers’ support for clean energy has been uneven”, said Michael Liebreich, chairman and CEO of the London based research firm New Energy Finance. “There have been successes such as the fast growth of wind power capacity in Texas, but there has also been a lack of consistency compared to leading European countries in providing the necessary national support for wind, solar, geothermal, and other new energy technologies”.

But even if environmentalists are jubilant about the green initiatives included in the bill, the investments might not be enough. Projections from the U.S Department of Energy show, for example, that worldwide energy demand will grow 50 percent between 2005- 2030. And since natural gas supplies seem to be stagnant, global availability of oil in decline, the result is a greater reliance on CO2 intensive coal.

“Even with a huge increase in spending on energy alternatives it is highly unlikely that renewable, advanced biofuels, and climate-safe coal will be available on large enough scale in 2030 to make up for what is likely to be an inadequate supply of oil and natural gas”, says Michael T. Klare, professor at Hampshire College and author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy, in this article Navigating the Energy Transition.

The consequence not only an increased geopolitical competition for energy supplies, but also a deteriorating environment. Participants in January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, concluded that clean energy investments of $515 billion per year is needed between now and 2030 for carbon emissions not to reach levels deemed unsustainable by scientists.

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