COMMENTARY
Renewable energy:
common goals, different
paths
Editor’s note: This commentary is excerpted from USDA Under
Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr ’s address during the
opening session of the Washington International Renewable Energ y
C o n f e rence (WIREC 2008), March 4. More conference highlights
will be included in the May-June issue.
Renewable energy has come of age. But for all of our
nations, renewable energy is both an urgent challenge and a
historic opportunity.
First the challenge: Since the fall of the Berlin Wall,
between 2 billion and 3 billion people have joined the world
market system. The world is an immensely more productive,
wealthier and a vastly more competitive place. Hundreds of
millions of people have already moved into the global middle
class, with energy footprints to match.
This is a good thing. But the surge in global energy
demand, the revaluation of energy and other commodities in
world markets and growing environmental concerns about
carbon emissions require that we adapt.
In this new world order, renewable energy has profound
national security and economic security implications. It is a
high environmental priority. It is creating new markets for
farmers, generating new jobs and increasing economic
opportunity in rural areas around the world.
For all these reasons, the time to act is now. All of us
recognize this imperative. That is why we are here. We may
be on different paths, pursuing different strategies, but we
seek the same goal.
The United States, by some measures, has come late to this
effort. The United States is a continental nation with an
abundance of resources and the luxury of many choices.
Renewables, until relatively recently, suffered as a result.
But if that is the historical record, the reality today is very
different. The United States, at the beginning of this decade,
began a new chapter. Old perceptions sometimes die hard, but
the old perception that the United States is a laggard on
renewable energy needs to die here and now.
- The United States today is one of the world’s leading
producers of renewable energy, measured across all sectors.
- Since the beginning of this decade, installed wind capacity
in the United States has increased sevenfold. We have led
the world in new capacity-added for three years running.
- Texas alone, if it were a nation, would rank seventh in the
world in wind energy. Texas is today America’s leading wind
energy state because of a Renewable Portfolio Standard
signed into law by then-Governor George Bush in 1999.
The President’s commitment to this cause is longstanding,
and continues today.
- The United States today ranks third in the world in solar
photovoltaics, behind Germany and Japan. Annual domestic
shipments of photovoltaic cells and modules have increased
more than 10-fold, again since the beginning of this decade.
- The United States is also a leader in geothermal, in waste to-energy and in solar-thermal power as well.
- Tu rning to biofuels, U.S. ethanol production has
quadrupled since 2000. We are now the world leader in this
sector and a leader in bringing cellulosic ethanol to market.
- At the beginning of the decade, U.S. production of biodiesel
was virtually zero, just 2 million gallons. Last year, the U.S.
produced 450 million gallons, placing us second in the
world behind Germany.
The development of renewable energy is not a race against
other nations; it is a race against our own capacity. But it is a
race to which the United States is today fully committed.
While we may have come late to the game, we have in fact,
achieved more in the past eight years than in the previous 30
years combined. So this is a new day.
We recognize that there are challenges ahead and that the
responses of nations may differ. The potential of biofuels, for
example, is already being multiplied by advances in genomics.
But not all nations share the readiness of the United States to
adopt these new techniques. That is their privilege.
On another front, sustainability is a universally desire d
goal. But sustainability means different things to different
people. Thanks to ongoing advances in science and to
improved farming techniques, American
farmers have steadily increased yields
while at the same time reducing erosion,
reducing the need for irrigation and
reducing fertilizer, herbicide and
pesticide intensity while protecting
habitat.
We have done all this without
infringing on the private pro p e rty rights
of farmers as they seek new markets and
to convert acreage to higher valueadded
crops. Producers will continue to
apply these skills to the many issues that
will arise as we build out the biofuels
industry, provided that we do not place
a rtificial barriers in the way.
Sustainability can be dynamic, as well
as static; we must not be paralyzed by a
fear of change.
Nations differ also in their openness
to markets. The United States is
committed to the rapid build-out of
renewable energy.
But we are committed as well to
minimizing costs to consumers — to a
s t rong, pro-growth economic policy and
to moving renewable energy industries
from subsidies to the market as rapidly
as possible. Other nations may strike a
different balance.
Let us respect our diff e rences and
learn from each other while not
constraining the ability of the world
market to trade in these new energy
resources.
After this conference, we will leave
with a renewed appreciation of the
global scope of this cause — hopefully
with a deepened understanding of the
choices we face and the diversity of the
strategies open to us, and with new
enthusiasm for the work ahead.
Nearly 30 years ago, the late Julian
Simon argued that “the human
imagination, coupled with the human
spirit was, indeed, the ultimate
resource.” I believe that this is true.
Together, we can build a cleaner, more
sustainable, and more productive energy
future. That is the goal of WIREC
2008. Let’s get to work.
