Action needed to save climate, create jobs

Action needed to save climate, create jobs

MIT Energy Conference speakers see need to boost clean-energy businesses through a price on carbon and incentives for manufacturing

David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

March 9, 2010

Clean-energy technologies offer the promise of revitalizing a dwindling base of manufacturing jobs in the United States while also addressing the problems of climate change and energy security, said Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico in a keynote speech at the annual MIT Energy Conference. But as great as the potential may be, it won't be realized unless substantial new policies and regulations are put in place — and the chances of that happening anytime soon are slim, he said.

While Congress and the Obama administration have taken some first steps, he said, "the policies that have been enacted to date are clearly not sufficient to establish the U.S. as the leader in clean technology." Right now, he said, "90 percent of the production capacity for new clean technology is outside the United States."

Bingaman added that "China is moving ahead very aggressively," and the United States needs to act soon to reverse the present tide. For example, while lithium-ion battery technology was developed in this country, only 1 percent of the manufacturing of these batteries — now used mostly in portable electronics devices, but seen as a key to the next generation of electric vehicles — takes place in the U.S.

That view of great potential but political stagnation was echoed by several speakers at the conference, which was held on March 6 at the Sheraton Boston. Speakers representing various levels of government, industry, academic research, international organizations, and the financial sector, among others, tended to agree that government action will play a crucial and decisive role in determining how the world responds to the challenges of growing energy demand and the risks of climate change, and how different nations' economies fare as a result.

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