NEW ENERGY IN THE NEW BUDGET

Obama’s Pitch on Energy
Editorial, February 14, 2012 (NY Times)

"President Obama’s new budget lays down a clear and much-needed challenge to the Republican House’s large number of climate-change deniers and all of the Republican Party’s many panderers to Big Oil…The budget calls for spending $6.7 billion on clean-energy programs in fiscal-year 2013 — 13 percent more than Congress appropriated for this fiscal year. It also calls for an end to $4 billion in annual tax cuts and subsidies now enjoyed by the oil and gas industry…

"…[P]rograms included in the budget…Increased financing for the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which underwrites a broad range of energy efficiency initiatives. The budget asks for $2.3 billion, up from $1.6 billion…Reauthorization of cash grants to wind, solar and other renewable energy companies…expired at the end of last year…[A]nother year of financing could create nearly 40,000 new jobs in the solar industry alone."

click to enlarge

"…Extension of a vital production tax credit for the wind industry that is scheduled to expire this year. Without some assurance that the credit will continue, investments in wind turbines and other equipment will dry up…[And incentives to] encourage the building of more energy efficient commercial buildings; promote tough new fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles; and support the Interior Department’s aggressive program of permitting new renewable energy projects on public lands…

"Last year, the five biggest oil companies racked up $137 billion in profits. They and their allies in Congress will fight to maintain their subsidies. Mr. Obama will have to push back. The cuts would not cost jobs or slow exploration. What they would do is save the government $4 billion to spend on the country’s energy future."