From Arkansas Business
Clean Energy for Our Future (Guest Commentary)
By Bert Fleck
3/15/2010
Recently, Dow Chemical and other Arkansas business leaders met with U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in Washington, D.C., to present our views on climate and energy policy.
We represent an informal network called the Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Energy Economy. We believe promoting job growth and U.S. energy independence starts with legislation that requires standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency and creates a private-sector market for low-carbon energy solutions.
We met with our senators to deliver a simple message: There is great untapped potential to grow the state’s economy, attract investment and create jobs by enacting a comprehensive national energy and climate policy that supports renewable energy, promotes energy efficiency and cuts carbon dioxide emissions.
Arkansas is well positioned to take full advantage of the fast-growing, multibillion-dollar clean technology market. Between 2006 and 2008, venture capitalists poured $22.8 million into clean technology businesses in our state. Why? Because we are quickly becoming a manufacturing center for wind energy and other clean technologies. New facilities in the state have created thousands of jobs. One study showed that in 2007, 448 Arkansas businesses had generated more than 4,500 clean energy jobs.
A recent study conducted by a consortium of economists at three leading universities found that comprehensive climate and energy policies could generate up to 25,000 additional jobs in Arkansas, increase Arkansas real gross domestic product by $1.2 billion and real household income by $1,230 per year, as measured in 2008 dollars, by 2020.
Entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors who support strong climate and clean energy legislation are convinced that a carbon emissions limit is the best market-based tool to spur new business opportunities and jobs for America. We see it as vital to our long-term economic competitiveness, as clean energy will unleash a flurry of new investments leading to the creation of jobs and the restoration our country’s technological edge.
We believe that Arkansans should note that market-based development of low-carbon energy sources is happening in multiple states and countries, regardless of what leaders in our state do this year. Most of the East Coast and all of the West Coast have already developed multi-state carbon markets. Already they are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the technologies that will be the basis of tomorrow’s wealth. European and Asian clean energy policies have helped shift world clean energy leadership from the United States to other nations. Arkansas should not resign itself to being left behind when its potential is so rich.
We disagree with those who believe clean energy is too expensive for Arkansans. Fuel savings by an OG&E wind project in Oklahoma in 2007 offset the entire cost of the project. Empire District Electric Co., located on the Missouri-Arkansas boarder, is the most wind-reliant utility in the nation. Its initial wind contract saved $4.2 million in avoided fossil fuel energy-generation costs in the first quarter of 2006, “far exceed[ing] our expectations and our customers and shareholders have enjoyed the financial benefits,” according to Empire Vice President Brad Beecher.
Due to our geographic location and significant clean energy resources, Arkansas is poised to lead America’s transition to clean, efficient energy. As leaders of established and emerging clean energy technology companies across the state and nation, we recognize the urgency and opportunity of this moment.
We hope Sens. Lincoln and Pryor do too. We urge them to give Arkansas the tools to lead our nation into a cleaner, more prosperous future by voting for strong climate and energy policies, now.
(Bert Fleck is manager of Dow Chemical’s Russellville plant.)
Tags: Arkansas, carbon pricing, Climate, Energy, Senator Lincoln, Senator Pryor
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