Cutting the Cost of Clean Energy 1.0

Center for American Progress

Toward a Clean Energy Deployment Plan For Jobs, Security, and Broad-Based Economic Growth in 2011

By Bracken Hendricks, Lisbeth Kaufman, Ken Berlin, Monty Humble, Reed Hundt, Alex Kragie, Gerry Waldron November 16, 2010

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Download the executive summary (pdf) - 8 pages

Members of the incoming 112th Congress will face very different political and eco- nomic circumstances when they take their seats in January. Any energy legislation the new Congress considers will require a fresh approach to match these new realities. Energy legislation proposed in the 111th Congress was tailored to an economic climate informed by the following facts that are now superseded by new considerations:

■Natural gas was $10 per thousand cubic feet. Natural gas is now at $4 per thousand cubic feet
■Gasoline at the pump was $4 per gallon. Now gas costs 33 percent less
■Demand for electricity was growing on an average of 2 percent to 2.2 percent, compounded annually. Now electricity demand is lower because of the state of the economy
■The unemployment rate was 5 percent. Unemployment now stands at 9.6 percent
■China and the United States were both primed to be major industry competitors in a worldwide clean energy economy. Now, China holds the commanding heights because its government ensures stable demand for clean energy and facilitates invest- ments in the sector through the deployment of low-cost finance

The political landscape has shifted as well. In the most recent congressional midterm elections, states where unemployment rates were oppressively high demanded immediate action on job creation. Across the American heartland, these states sent fresh faces to Congress and statehouses in droves, charging them with a simple mission: Solve the unemployment crisis.

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