Here Comes the Year of Clean Energy!
Posted on January 4, 2007 by oregoncub
Tags, Climate and Conservation, Legislative & Political
Well, 2006 has been called the Year of Living Globally (by eweek.com), the Year of You (by Time Magazine), and The Year of the Democratic Woman (by lots of people, from The Nation to The National Review). The year 2006 could (and has) also been called the Year of Global Warming. Last year gave us thousands of showings of An Inconvenient Truth, the Second Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Nairobi, the evacuation of one island (off of India) due to rising sea levels, and today saw a cartoon by Jack Ohman of the Oregonian suggesting that Endangered Polar Bears could lead to Threatened Bush Junk Science. The denial is melting as fast as the ice sheets, it seems.
If 2006 was the year the U.S. began to acknowledge global warming, then 2007 will undoubtedly be the year we start to deal with it, right? Well, with the Chinese New Year coming up (February 18th) and China growing in importance to international discussions of finance, politics, and (yes) global warming, we also offer this description of those born in the upcoming Year of the Pig (or Boar): “Fire Pigs breathe new life into everything they do. These Pigs are vivid, motivated individuals who cannot be deterred from a goal once they have set it.”
Cue the opening of the Oregon State Legislature. CUB and its allies, particularly those who are members of the Fair & Clean Energy Coalition, will be moving forward with a Clean Energy Agenda that has been fine-tuned and spit-polished, ready to take to Salem next week.
Our goals include:
1) We will work to create a Renewable Energy Standard for the State of Oregon that requires that 25% of Oregon’s electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2025.
2) We will work to increase the amount of money available to help low income Oregonians pay their electric bills, from $10 million to $15 million.
3) We will work to remove the current sunset provision on the funding for the hugely successful energy efficiency and renewable projects managed by the Energy Trust of Oregon.
4) We will explore additional investment in those successful energy efficiency and renewables programs.
5) We will work to earmark one percent of new public buildings’ budgets for installing solar technology.
6) We will work to improve building standards so that we achieve a 15% increase in energy savings in new buildings.
7) We will work to expand clean energy technology credits so that homebuilders and others will have an incentive to install solar power systems or energy efficient appliances.
8) And finally, we will work to increase our energy efficiency standards for appropriate appliances to reflect other energy-saving standards being adopted around the country.
This list has been carefully crafted by those within CUB and our network who know the affected laws currently in place (and in some cases helped write them) and know how to work for maximum impact going forward. We believe that everything on this list is eminently achievable.
In fact, we are feeling rather Boar-ish. Watch out, Salem—here comes CUB.
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03/10/17 | 0 Comments | Here Comes the Year of Clean Energy!