Cleantech Blog’s Parameters for a Workable Energy Policy

Energy is life, the rest runs on it.

Since the 70s through every presidential administration and every Congress, we have had an energy policy that boiled down to fighting the cold war through oil and getting lucky on locally sourced coal and gas.  It’s not a zero planning energy policy, we’ve spent money, defined policies, written rules, set goals, etc.  We’ve just done our planning with 50 year old assumptions and zig zagged our way to idiocy.

One of my first ever blogs over five years ago touched on this topic:

My comments at the time after the 2005 energy bill:

“We need to achieve low oil prices, and ensure that no one country is able to control our fuel supply. We have just passed a new Energy Bill. It does not do so. What we do need to do: Drop the ANWR fight and instead break the back of OPEC, slash consumption, and work closely with China.”

But first things first.  This time I’d like to simply lay out the parameters of what ought to be in a workable, comprehensive, energy policy for the US in a post cold war era, where economic powers are shifting, where the war on terror is real, where environment matters, and where energy supply sources are changing and maybe getting more expensive.

Cleantech Blog has defined 20 parameters needed in a good energy plan.

1. Has a clear cut and articulated vision – including acknowledging that energy security is not just  “energy independence”
2. Deals with both demand and supply issues holistically
3. Considers least cost path in any change
4. Is phased in manageable ways
5. Takes into account our current supply mix, load growth forecasts, and geographic considerations
6. Includes both transport fuels and electric power
7. Provides us with least cost or comparative advantage in energy both today and in the future vis a vis our core economic competitors
8. Provides secure and interchangeable supply of energy resources and flows both domestic and cross-border
9. Doesn’t destroy our current energy industry
10. Allows time for energy and industry change
11. Does the least environmental damage possible, and includes ongoing improvement in environmental impact
12. Survivable under multiple energy demand growth scenarios and resource supply shocks in a global world
13. Provides reliable energy to our industry and population
14. Deals with or changes the current state and federal regulatory and permitting structures
15. Considers the practicalities of infrastructure change, both lead time, economics, financing, technology, and regulatory
16. Deals with the political considerations of OPEC and the Middle East
17. Takes into account supply resources where we do have a comparative advantage
18. Is fair and equitable during any shift in costs for one region or group
19. Addresses and capitalizes on technology improvement in the US and globally
20. Deals with China and India and Brazil as rising consumers and producers of energy resources

The energy policy itself should be simple in concept, and the energy plan hellishly detailed and complex in implementation.  But we desperately need this energy plan.

Energy is life, the rest runs on it.