Archive for April, 2012

For several years now, we’ve been making the case that the clean energy industry has to dramatically scale its advocacy investment to meet an aggressive disinformation campaign trained against it by the fossil lobby. We’ve found increasing receptiveness to that message, but we still run into people who think we’ve got tin foil on our heads. The refrain goes something like this: “Who’d want to do such a thing to wind, solar and geothermal power?”

Well, look no further than ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. He just effectively admitted his massive company – the most profitable on Earth – has a strong financial interest in blocking clean energy scaling. According to Tillerson, his company – which has one of the worst reputations in America – has a lot of the farm bet on fracking-driven natural gas. The company is in the electricity business like it’s never been before, and this means it needs electrons generated from burning fracked gas in order to recoup that investment.

As CNNMoney reports:

Tillerson is betting much of his company’s future growth — and a good portion of his legacy – on the promise of fracking…To deliver the future returns that its shareholders expect, Exxon needs the XTO purchase – which so far hasn’t lived up to its promise because of falling natural-gas prices – to pay off bigtime.

Bottom line? Tillerson can’t make back his money if clean energy scales.

Set aside the arrogance of the suckers-game proposition Tillerson put in the article: “Prove to me that I need to prove my dirty practices aren’t dirty.” The fact is that Tillerson and other fracking backers are whistling past the graveyard of the faulty promise: The industry that brought you the Exxon Valdez and the BP Deep Water Horizon Disaster can pierce, inject below and dump over our aquifers a toxic cocktail of chemicals… and never mess up.

Cleantech executives and investors who still think that simple business execution alone will get us to scale should look at ExxonMobil’s storied, extensive use of influence peddling ($4.2 M in reported lobbying in Q1 alone), disinformation and front groups to further its interests.

In order to scale clean energy to where it can and should be, you’re going to need good business execution and a much greater investment in public positioning and advocacy. We’re on the playing field with guys who hit pretty hard. We’re threatening their profits. Don’t expect them to sit there and leave you alone.

This is pretty cool:

You knew it was only a matter of time before wind turbine technicians would get their own reality show, given wind energy’s growing importance in the energy sector and economy. Well, thanks to The Weather Channel, it’s come true. Turbine Cowboys, which premiered last week and airs on Tuesday evenings, does not disappoint…

As The Weather Channel explains:

Wind turbine workers risk their lives building, maintaining, and repairing these monolithic, modern day windmills: the wind turbines. “Turbine Cowboys” follows two teams: the would-be “wind techs” from their hardcore boot camp training through their first year in the field, and the seasoned veterans who are still challenged every day. They all face extreme weather, dizzying heights, and possible electrocution. We find out who is attracted to this job and why, and follow them as they push the envelope to wrestle electricity from the wind…

It definitely sounds like a show worth watching, including those of us with a fear of heights!

This list of sustainability indicators by Bloomberg illustrates several important points related to energy, including how much the most highly profitable and polluting industries on the planet live off our tax money.  Take these two numbers, for instance:

• $409 billion: “worldwide government subsidies given to the fossil-fuel industry in 2010.”
• $66 billion: “global subsidies for renewable energy in 2010.”

As you can see, subsidies to fossil fuels dwarfed those to renewable energy in 2010, as they have historically.  This is the case despite the fact that the 5 largest oil companies made $1 trillion in profits between 2001 and 2011.  Not coincidentally, “For every $1 spent on lobbying in Washington, the big five received $30 worth of tax breaks.”

Meanwhile, in spite of a playing field that’s heavily tilted in favor of fossil fuels, three more statistics in the Bloomberg list jumped out at us:

• $260 billion: “global investment in renewable energy in 2011.”
• $1 trillion: “worldwide investments in renewable energy through 2011.”
• 73.3 gigawatts: “additional global wind and solar capacity planned for 2012.”
• 82%: “decline in solar panel prices since August 2009.”

What these numbers demonstrate is clear: even as taxpayers continue to pour money into subsidizing highly profitable fossil-fuel-focused energy companies, clean energy is booming, scaling, and catching up to fossil fuels at a rapid rate.

Here are five recommended reads for today (4/26/12)

1. Renewable Energy World reports, “The U.S. solar market’s centre of gravity is shifting from the southwest towards the east coast and Florida, in particular.”
2. According to Greentechsolar: “Agua Caliente is now the biggest PV plant around. And there’s more to come. Utility-scale solar will rule in 2012.”
3. Reuters reports, “More than twenty companies have signed a partnership agreement to turn the North Sea into a major renewable energy hub focusing on offshore wind power, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron is to announce on Thursday.”
4. ClimateProgress writes: “Last year, ExxonMobil, one of the world’s most profitable companies, earned $1,300 in profits per second. As consumers paid record-high springtime gas prices, Exxon posted first quarter profits of $9.45 billion.”
5. Bloomberg reports, “Twelve countries will sign a declaration on solar and wind energy to boost cooperation between nations and encourage investors…The declaration will include new efforts to map wind and solar resources on a global level to encourage private investment in the renewables sector.”

A new study by George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis compares the potential economic impacts of developing renewable energy versus fossil energy – coal and natural gas – in Virginia through 2035. The results are striking, although not surprising to those of us who believe in, and advocate for, clean energy:

The quantification of economic impacts shows that significant economic gains and new jobs would accrue from investment in renewable energy sources in both scenarios. The economic gains from the two renewable energy sources ranged from $13 billion to $20.8 billion – significantly higher than gains from coal and natural gas. The construction costs for renewables would be higher, operating costs would be comparable among all the different sources, but the higher investment required for renewables would create the most significant economic gains.

After signing the Green Communities Act into law in 2008, the commonwealth has seen an explosion of new companies. There are now 64,000 people employed in Massachusetts’ clean energy sector today.