In the absence of comprehensive energy legislation, Congress should consider extending some of the highly effective Recovery Act policies that have helped the renewable energy sector grow in the past year and half. These programs are addressing ongoing financing challenges during the slower-than-expected recovery from this recession.

A big contributor to solar’s robust growth has been the wildly successful Treasury Grant Program (TGP) (http://seia.org/galleries/FactSheets/Factsheet_TGP.pdf). It has already helped create thousands of jobs and expanded safe, reliable and cost-competitive solar energy in over 40 states. It’s a powerful reminder that solar works in every region of our country and is putting people back to work.

But the progress of the past year and a half will be stopped dead in its tracks if Congress doesn’t act to extend the job-creating TGP. Four and half million households won’t get access to clean, safe energy and tens of thousands of jobs won’t be created. And if the President is really dedicated to doubling U.S. renewable energy generation, we need to extend the TGP.

Solar projects stimulated by the TGP along with the manufacturing tax credits in the Recovery Act are reinvigorating America’s manufacturing base – particularly in some of the hardest hit states, like Michigan and Ohio (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2010-06-15-toledo15_CV_N.htm). But it will be one step forward and two steps back for American manufacturing if we don’t extend these smart, job-creating policies.

Congress should make a commitment to generating solar energy for America’s homes and businesses with American-made solar components by making the manufacturing investment tax credit (MITC) permanent and including the equipment used to manufacture solar components.

Another important Recovery Act program hasn’t been given the opportunity to succeed. The Department of Energy renewable energy loan guarantee program can play a crucial role in deploying clean energy projects by providing lower-cost financing. But to date, it’s been bogged down by bureaucracy and since the program’s inception in 2005.

We need a loan guarantee program that works in practice, not just theory. That means Congress should return the $3.5 billion that was raided to fund other policies. And it means cutting through the bureaucracy to process loan guarantees in a timely manner. Private investors won’t wait forever to see whether projects receive a loan guarantee or if there’s even money in the program.

These are simple, achievable policy objectives that legislators can chalk up as wins before November. If a comprehensive energy bill isn’t doable, let’s not pass up these important opportunities to grow clean energy and create jobs in America.

Congress still has plenty of opportunities to promote clean energy and reduce the heat-trapping emissions that are driving climate change.

First and foremost, Congress should preserve the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect public health by reducing emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources. The EPA made a science-based determination under the Clean Air Act that climate change threatens public health. Undermining the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act would run contrary to the vast body of scientific evidence that climate change -- by reducing air quality, exacerbating heat waves and other effects -- threatens human health.

The Clean Air Act has served Americans extraordinarily well. It has been successfully applied to clean up acid rain, soot and smog. The act has saved and extended countless lives and improved quality of life for millions of Americans. The EPA should continue reducing harmful pollution from dirty coal- and oil-fired power plants, vehicles of all sizes and other sources across the country that lead to respiratory disease and cancer.

Congress also has an opportunity to pass a national renewable electricity standard (RES). Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have already demonstrated that renewable electricity standards work. Half of those states have returned to strengthen those standards because they yield benefits for consumers and farmers while reducing heat-trapping carbon emissions. A federal standard would increase the reliability of our energy grid and encourage the development of our clean home-grown energy sources. The House passed a RES last June. The Senate has passed a renewable electricity standard three times since 2002. This is the year to finally get a completed bill to the president for his signature.

Finally, Congress can help promote the next generation of clean vehicles and clean fuels.

There is broad support in Congress to move forward with a national policy to speed the deployment of electric vehicles. Legislation in both the House and Senate would give targeted funding to communities around the country to work with industry, electric utilities and other organizations to deploy electric drive vehicles, including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles. Such support is important since putting more electric vehicles on the road has implications for local zoning requirements, building codes, and electricity infrastructure. We need to ensure that a future with more electric drive vehicles is built from the ground up.

It is also time for Congress to reform tax credits for biofuels. The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. This tax credit wastes billions of taxpayer dollars without delivering any environmental, oil savings, or economic benefits. Congress should allow VEETC to expire and start over with tax credits for biofuels that reward performance.

According to a recent UCS report, a performance based tax-credit tied to oil displacement and pollution reduction would save taxpayers $20 billion from 2011 to 2014 compared to extending current tax credits. We could use just a quarter of these savings to support investments in next generation biofuels. That would bring advanced biofuels production to commercial scale and put the first billion gallons of clean biofuels on the market. The financial crisis derailed the next generation biofuels industry, just as they were gathering steam. With some smart, targeted investments we can get this vital industry back on track. Innovation and ingenuity are going to be key to an economic recovery and a revitalized clean biofuels industry should be part of the plan.

At a Las Vegas energy summit this week, Senator Reid said he was inclined to bring up “piecemeal legislation” that included a plan for boosting America's use of natural gas vehicles. Such a plan is badly needed for both environmental and national security reasons. And it deserves bipartisan support.

As we understand it, Reid's plan currently includes $3.8 billion in incentives for buyers of alternative vehicles and for building fueling stations. The Department of Energy would be responsible for developing a loan program to build more facilities in the United States to produce natural gas vehicles and their components – provisions that would provide jobs and act as an economic stimulus. The bill also would set aside $400 million to spur use of electric vehicles, which can be powered by low-carbon electricity from modern, efficient combined-cycle natural gas plants.

Hence, any clean vehicle bill could be strengthened by also phasing in generator performance standards for carbon and other pollutants. By retiring our dirtiest and most inefficient coal plants, plug-in vehicles quickly become more environmentally friendly. You start putting natural gas-powered cars on our highways with these green plug-ins, and we will start weaning our country off imported oil.

Finally, other agencies must take similar incremental steps. Congress should grant the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission clear authority to factor social and environmental costs into rules for dispatching wholesale power in regional electricity markets. The external costs of coal have been well documented by government researchers, and powering up with natural gas and other renewables will not only clean the air but also reduce instances of asthma, lung and heart disease.

Congress doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. It just needs to run the wheels we have on energy sources that are plentiful and clean.

Even in the most divisive political atmosphere, policy makers can agree that the nation needs a plan to reduce our dependence on oil. The dollars spent on imported oil, the environmental impacts, as well as the economic and security challenges created by a transportation sector almost entirely dependent on a single fuel are unsustainable costs.

Electric drive transportation is an essential part of the solution. The environmental, economic and national security benefits of displacing oil with electricity have been well documented. Advanced technology vehicles, throughout the supply chain - from materials to manufacture to sales to recharging - will also create jobs and reduce the approximately $440 billion the U.S. spends annually on foreign oil.

Congress has laid the policy foundations for an electric drive transportation sector and in the limited time remaining in this session, they can speed the achievement of our energy goals by acting on key policies that accelerate mainstream adoption of electric drive transportation.

Specifically, federal tax policies can jump start near-term markets and provide the clear signals needed to promote longer term investments. Incentives for domestic manufacturing investments and for the purchase of electric drive vehicles and infrastructure will help to build markets, consumer acceptance and green jobs. Pending tax legislation in the House and Senate contains critical incentives for consumers and can have an immediate impact on the emerging electric drive market

In addition, Congress should invest in a national effort to promote plug-in electric vehicle deployment. Legislation pending in the Senate, S. 3663, includes a bipartisan proposal to establish national and regional deployment programs that will help more communities invest in vehicles and infrastructure, speed the commercial scale adoption of electric drive and help the industry achieve the economies of scale that will bring down costs.

By taking these next steps toward electrification and away from oil in transportation, Congress can advance our progress toward national goals of energy security, clean transportation, and a competitive green jobs economy.

When future scholars document the history of global warming, one of the watershed years will almost surely be 2010. For over a decade, the primary goal of U.S. climate policy advocates has been to establish a strong carbon pollution cap and a binding global emissions treaty. Armed with large war chests and major electoral victories, climate advocates had one of the best opportunities to achieve these goals.

This agenda has collapsed. In the aftermath of the Copenhagen climate negotiations and recent developments in the Senate, it is clear that carbon caps in the U.S. and globally will not happen for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the IEA projects global CO2 emissions will skyrocket 40% above 2007 levels by 2030, and the EIA predicts China’s emissions will more than double over the next 25 years – which would make its emissions greater than the rest of the world combined.

What happens next? The upcoming lame-duck session in Congress could be one of the last opportunities for national reform before 2013. There are a number of incremental proposals worth pushing, from the American Clean Energy Leadership Act, to Senator Alexander and Senator Dorgan’s Electric Vehicle Deployment Act, to Senator Kerry’s latest Clean Energy Technology Leadership Act. Some still hope for a Hail Mary lame-duck pass on cap and trade, but when asked whether it could be revived, Senator Reid recently said, “It doesn’t appear so at this stage. It doesn’t have the traction that a lot of us wish it had.”

But none of these alternative proposals contain one of the most critical elements for reform: a dedicated revenue stream to fund major federal investment in clean energy research, development, demonstration, deployment, and manufacturing, as well as infrastructure and workforce development. The American Energy Innovation Council, including business titans like Bill Gates and John Doerr, has called for an increase of $11 billion per year in federal clean energy RD&D alone – an idea that could attract serious bipartisan support after mid-term elections. This proposal enjoys broad support from groups like Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Institution, Third Way, ITIF, and many others.

These investments are critical for ensuring the clean energy accomplishments of ARRA aren’t imperiled as public investment falls off a cliff. They’re also critical for establishing U.S. competitiveness and driving down the price of clean energy technologies through innovation. If the price gap between dirty and clean energy technology isn’t bridged quickly, the world has little chance of avoiding climate destabilization as countries like China and India develop at break-neck speed.

Cap and trade could have originally provided this revenue stream, but now that it’s off the table, we must find an alternative. Potential sources include reduced fossil fuel subsidies, offshore drilling royalties, an oil import fee, a small fee on fossil fuel electricity, or even a low carbon tax beginning at $5 per ton. Another source outside the energy sector could be a small fee on financial transactions. This idea has been proposed as a way to fund the $100 billion international climate assistance package, and could be applied domestically to reduce speculative trading and support a new growth industry.

Meanwhile, the possibility of achieving a binding global emissions treaty at the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Cancun is all but gone. The new chairwoman of the United Nations climate treaty body recently put it this way: “I do not believe we will ever have a final agreement on climate change, certainly not in my lifetime.” We must therefore put more emphasis on alternative forums like the Clean Energy Ministerial and Major Economies Forum on Energy & Climate. Instead of endlessly debating emissions targets and timetables, the world’s technology policy leaders can break the logjam by identifying specific technical hurdles, creating coordinated technology roadmaps, and mobilizing the resources for rapid implementation.

Beyond the immediate future, climate and clean energy advocates should take the opportunity to fundamentally rethink our strategy. Will we abandon the prospect of major federal reform, or develop a stronger approach for the next Congress? And will we continue focusing on carbon caps, or will we adopt a new approach focused on technological innovation to make clean energy cheaper? These are just some of the questions that will define the next agenda – and our energy and climate future.

Updated at 4:46 p.m.

Just before Congress began its August recess, a chorus of voices from the energy, agriculture, environmental and labor sectors spoke out in favor of a simple, bipartisan policy change that can help ensure long-term economic growth, support billions in private investments and pass the Senate this fall. Over the past month, people from around the country and across the political spectrum – including 70% of Republicans, 77% of Independents and 84% of Democrats polled by the National Journal in August – have added their voices to the call for that policy. It’s a policy that more than 30 states already have in place, and one that half of those states have strengthened in recognition of its benefits. Finally, it’s a policy that Senate Majority Leader Reid said last week is “absolutely” on the table for a possible vote this fall, at least partly because Republican Senators have expressed interest in it publicly and privately.

That’s a hefty dose of support, and it’s all focused on the national Renewable Electricity Standard, or RES. There’s a good reason for such widespread enthusiasm. The RES is the only major energy policy that has passed with bipartisan support by a committee in this Senate (the Energy and Natural Resources committee, in June 2009). It is the only policy that has already been proven on the ground in more than half the states – including states with conservative leadership like Texas, Arizona and Montana. And it is the only policy with a real chance to keep the US in a global energy race that is rapidly accelerating and threatening to leave us behind.

As the US economy works to recover from the worst setback since the Great Depression, we must encourage investment in infrastructure, innovation and products that can support an export economy for the 21^st century. All over the world, countries are moving as quickly as possible to attract renewable, efficient and clean energy technologies like wind power, because they recognize that this industry has more job-creating potential than any other.

Renewable energy has proven itself to be a job and revenue creator in the US, as well. To take just one example of many, Iberdrola Renewables’ Streator Cayuga Ridge wind energy facility in Livingston County, Illinois, uses 150 turbines manufactured by Gamesa in Pennsylvania; employed more than 300 local workers and half a dozen Illinois-based companies during construction; and incorporates components produced by American companies from North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Washington. The project will contribute $2.7 – 3.5 million annually to the local tax base and pay about $1.2 million annually to local landowners. A national RES would encourage many more projects like Streator Cayuga Ridge, with benefits for communities across the country.

It is very encouraging that Senator Reid has opened the door to a debate on the RES this fall. No other policy has the same level of bipartisan support, economic growth potential or long-term urgency. Passing an RES would make a major contribution to our country’s economic and environmental future, and help demonstrate to the American people that we can address our common challenges even in the face of election-year politics.

While NextEra Energy has always supported both a price on carbon and a national renewable electricity standard, over the near term, the RES is more important. A price on carbon will shape markets over decades. An RES is essential to keep the renewables industry growing strong over the next five to 10 years.

We would invest significantly more money with a national RES in place. We’re already spending more than $1 billion a year developing new wind projects. With an RES, we think we could invest an additional $1 billion per year.

On solar, we think we could boost our investment by $1.5 billion per year – about $1 billion more at Florida Power & Light and about $500 million more outside of Florida.

These Investments in clean energy have the potential to create a significant number of jobs. Over the past five years, NextEra Energy has spent more than $18 billion on clean energy infrastructure, and we estimate that we’ve created roughly 60,000 direct and indirect jobs. If we can invest an additional $2.5 billion dollars a year on clean energy, that translates into more than 40,000 jobs over the next five years.

Finally, without an RES, I’m concerned that we are in serious danger of losing the clean energy race. Last year, for the first time ever, China built more wind farms than the United States. And here in our home market, three of the top five wind energy producers are European. Remember: America’s nuclear power industry once led the world, but we forfeited that lead to others. If we don’t want the same thing to happen with renewables, we need supportive policies in place as soon as possible.

My message to the Senate is simple: With a national RES in place, we will invest billions of additional dollars and create tens of thousands of additional jobs. Without an RES, that won’t be possible.

There are a number of things Congress can do that would represent good energy policy as well as help the economy get on a stronger growth path. In deed, it is more likely that so called piecemeal legislation would lead to better results than the push for comprehensive legislation. The reason is simply that comprehensive legislation usually involves back room deals to get votes and hidden provisions that benefit the favored or produce unintended consequences.

The goals for any energy legislation should be to encourage domestic investment, avoid subsidies that misallocate resources and reward rent seekers, produce affordable energy that meets the needs of a growing population and economy,and to remove impediments to the development of new energy sources and the investment in upgrades and new technology.

The near term focus should be on actions that contribute to job creation, business investment, and consumer confidence. A simple test for any energy proposal should be whether it will contribute to restoring strong economic growth.

No matter what any of us believe about climate change,we are going to rely on petroleum to power our transportation system for decades to come. It is in our best interests to produce as much of that oil domestically as we can. If we don’t, oil imports will continue to climb and money that could be invested here will flow to foreign suppliers.

In spite of the recent fire on a production platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the Deepwater Horizon accident, offshore production is safe and the Gulf is rich in oil and gas. The current moratorium which jeopardizes about 23,000 jobs should be ended promptly. Other offshore areas and large parts of Alaska contain oil and gas resources can be developed without serious threat to the environment. Increased domestic production not only leads to lower imports but the investment involved produces widespread economic benefits in the form of good paying jobs and the purchase of goods and services from US suppliers.

At a time when the economy is struggling to regain its footing, Congress should take steps that encourage hiring and greater investment. This could involve making the R&D tax credit permanent as well as making it clear that tax rates are not going to increase. Non financial corporations are holding almost $2 trillion in cash that could be invested productively if there was less uncertainty about fiscal and economic policies.

Congress should also avoid actions that penalize companies for being successful. Proposals to remove the “Section 199” deductions from oil companies, which was intended to encourage domestic manufacturing, are counter productive. And, the Obama Administration’s proposal to eliminate the tax credit that companies receive for taxes paid on foreign source income will not only discourage investment here but will make it difficult for US companies to compete globally. The US already has the second highest corporate tax rate among industrialized countries. The last thing that US companies need is double taxation.

Congress should also consider reinstituting accelerated depreciation rules for capital investments. That would encourage the turnover of the capital stock and increased investment in new capital. If utilities were encouraged to retire old power plants, they would have an incentive to replace coal with natural gas. Developing our abundance of natural gas resources is good for the environment and for consumers of electricity. Incentives to shift from coal to gas would be preferable to mandates to reduce emissions of mercury, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.

It should be clear that voters have drawn a line in the sand when it comes to wasteful spending, subsidies that reward rent seekers, and actions like cap and trade or arbitrary renewable energy requirements that would raise the cost of the energy they need to heat and light their homes and drive their personal vehicles.

Congress should take heed and focus on actions that will solve real problems while strengthening the economy.

Senator Reid's recent statement that he sees more bipartisan support for a renewable electricity standard is a sure sign energy legislation is still very much in play. A recent Op-Ed by Sen. Mark Udall (http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2010/aug/22/us-sen-mark-udall-lets-set-standard/) and letter signed by labor, leading utilities, renewable energy trade associations, and most of the environmental community (http://www.awea.org/blog/Index.php?mode=viewid&post_id=441) shows that momentum is building throughout the nation. There is every reason the Senate can pass energy legislation with an RES.

We also believe an extension of the very successful Treasury grant program (Section 1603) has enough support to pass in September. The grant program has been working, and during the dire situation the wind industry faced last year, it helped the wind industry avoid a 50% drop in installations. However, the program currently applies only to wind projects on which construction is begun by the end of this year, and that limitation should be removed to keep the industry moving forward. Unlike the wind industry, the fossil fuel industries do not have to go back to Congress to seek extensions for their tax incentives, many of which have been permanent in the tax code since the 1910s and ‘20s.

Finally, an extension of the Section 48C manufacturing tax credit, which will continue helping us produce more wind turbine components here in the U.S., is also in play. The funds allocated for Section 48C were heavily oversubscribed, which tells us that America's manufacturing companies remain eager to innovate and become more competitive in global markets. Even with these short-term policy objectives (extending 1603 and 48C), however, we still need a national RES to keep us competitive with other countries around the world.

The wind industry is at a crossroads right now, with businesses and investors carefully watching to see if the U.S. passes legislation to show a commitment to supporting renewables. The industry currently employs 85,000 workers, with enormous potential to grow. A national RES and other policies to promote clean energy technologies will create over 275,000 jobs in the wind sector alone. Thirty-seven nations around the world have adopted long-term, binding renewable energy targets. We urgently need similar certainty in the U.S. in order to compete successfully for the new factories and skilled manufacturing jobs wind energy brings that can revitalize the industrial sector of our economy.