Rallying for renewables

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Maybe we need to sign former President Bill Clinton to a contract requiring him to come here every three years and deliver inspirational words on renewable energy.

A speech he gave here in 2005 centered on Nevada’s potential for becoming the country’s leading producer of clean power. Our renewables industry, alive but basically sleepwalking at the time, shook itself awake afterward and achieved some remarkable progress.

Clinton’s speech came at the onset of a growing sense nationally that the oil and gas industries are too dominant given their economic and environmental drawbacks.

Today Nevada Power Co. says our state leads the country in terms of the amount of solar and geothermal power sold per capita. And several projects are under way or being planned that could considerably increase the amount of renewable power produced here over the next five years.

And yet Nevada still is not even barely tapping its potential for producing power from renewable sources, mainly wind, solar and geothermal. So the timing was right Monday night for another energy talk by Clinton.

His speech kicked off the National Clean Energy Summit that continued through Tuesday at UNLV. Building on his theme of three years ago, he challenged us to become energy self-sufficient.

“There should be one state that proves you can do it — and it should be you and it could be you,” he said.

Clinton echoed what Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a co-sponsor of the summit, has been saying for years — that there is no limit to this state’s potential for producing renewable power and the jobs that go with it.

Most of the barriers, such as gaining approvals and rights of way for transmission lines, are not insurmountable. One, however, may remain until a new Congress is seated.

Senate Republicans are standing fast against extending the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit that expires Dec. 31. Since this credit was first approved in 1992, it has never been secure, having at times been extended for only short periods or allowed to expire completely.

The result is a renewables industry that has developed in spurts, as opposed to following a steady growth pattern.

For Clinton’s words to again be followed by significant progress, it is essential that this tax credit be extended long enough to give renewable energy companies the stable start they need.