Obama on the campaign trail consistently emphasized aggressive changes in energy policy, but some experts think the credit crunch will take precedence over his energy plan, including Will Pearson, an energy analyst for the Eurasia Group, a global consulting firm.

"I think his ability to implement the extensive programs he's talked about will be constrained by the economy," Pearson said.

Although Democrats will hold the majority in the newly elected Congress, money concerns among their constituents could cause some senators and representatives to oppose several of the new administration's proposals.

For example, Obama's energy plan calls for a law mandating 25 percent of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, but that may not be politically possible in the current financial climate, Pearson told United Press International. Some regions of the country have fewer renewable resources, particularly the Southeast, which means such a law could force them to import electricity produced from renewable sources in other states. And that means higher costs.

"I think there's going to be significant congressional opposition to that (legislation) �� because, at the end of the day, they're sensitive to the resources in their state," Pearson said. "Right now it would be a huge cost burden for any region without a lot of renewable resources."

But other experts say the economic crisis will push both Congress and the new administration to place more importance on energy-related issues than before Wall Street's stumble.

"The Obama campaign firmly believes that trying to move the U.S. toward green technology �� by itself will be very stimulative to the economy," said Bill Bumpers, an expert on climate-change issues and a partner in the environmental practice at the global law firm Baker Botts. "There is great impetus behind energy security and climate change."

How the Obama administration handles domestic energy policy will have ramifications for international climate-change talks. In December 2009 a U.N. meeting will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, to finalize a replacement for the current global agreement on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol. Obama's stance on climate-change initiatives has given him clout in the international arena already, Bumpers told UPI.

"The fact that Senator Obama is such an aggressive supporter of climate-change policy is going to help our standing with the parties to the Kyoto Protocol," he said.

But once Obama takes office, his platform won't win over the world if he doesn't get Congress to take action, many experts believe. Passing a cap-and-trade bill, which would limit the total amount of carbon emissions allowed and require entities to purchase emissions shares, could send a positive signal internationally, Bumpers said.

"It's important for President-elect Obama and the U.S. Congress to show their resolve to take meaningful steps to reduce emissions in order to get more leverage to get countries like China to (follow suit)," Bumpers said.

However, cap-and-trade bills have failed in Congress a number of times in recent years, and it will be difficult for Obama to get one through anytime soon, said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global-warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank dedicated to free-market ideals. In fact, if cap-and-trade is the goal, the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, would have been a better choice, Ebell told UPI.

McCain introduced the first cap-and-trade legislation in the U.S. Congress, and Ebell said he believes McCain would have been able to garner more bipartisan support for the measure than Obama will.

"Most of the Republicans in Congress still oppose it," Ebell said. "If McCain had been elected, it would have been harder for them to unite in opposition against a president of their own party."

With Obama in office, though, Ebell said he expects congressional Republicans will organize a concerted effort to block the bill, as they did in June.

The cap-and-trade issue aside, a number of industry groups, including automakers, are heralding Obama's other energy plans.

Obama wants to increase the fuel-efficiency standards required for cars and light trucks by 4 percent per year, mandate that all new vehicles by 2013 can run on biofuels and increase the number of plug-in electric vehicles on the road to 1 million by 2015. But the proposal that most excites the auto industry is Obama's plan to provide car and parts manufacturers with $4 billion in tax credits and loan guarantees for updating plants to produce more energy-efficient cars. This will help the domestic auto industry compete with international manufacturers, said Charles Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association.

"Senator Obama has been a strong advocate for providing the auto industry with the resources necessary to get back on track," Territo told UPI. "We look forward to working with him."

The biofuels industry also has high hopes for the new administration but will depend more on the work of federal agencies than legislative action, said Andy Foster, president of AE Biofuels, a biofuels company.

Congress already has passed a number of bills that provide assistance to the biofuels industry. Now Foster and others hope Obama will push those programs to fruition.

"We'd like to see attention on implementing these programs and finding a way to streamline the bureaucratic processes so that those moneys become available quicker," Foster said. "With the credit crunch, a lot of those dollars are essential for companies to get so they can get their technologies into the marketplace."

Obama's stance on nuclear power has been much more cautious than McCain's, stating that key issues such as security and waste must be addressed "before an expansion of nuclear power is considered," according to his Web site. Skip Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a policy organization promoting the industry, voiced optimism about the election results but urged Congress and the next White House to recognize the need for nuclear power.

"If the United States is going to meet the predicted 25 percent growth in electricity demand by the year 2030, as well as achieve its environmental goals, we must begin that work now," Bowman said in a statement. "And we must recognize, as a nation, that we cannot reach our energy goals without the reliable, affordable and carbon-free electricity that nuclear power plants generate."

Other proposals in the Obama energy plan include promises to modernize the national utility grid, weatherize 1 million low-income homes annually, construct a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, create a job-training program for clean-energy technologies and make all new buildings carbon-neutral by 2030.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News