Clean Energy

A golden opportunity is bubbling up beneath that undersea volcano of oil spewing thousands of gallons per day into the Gulf of Mexico. We have a chance to truly move our country, as BP says in its ad campaigns, "beyond petroleum. " Despite the spill's devastation, President Obama continues to claim that we must push forward with more offshore drilling - albeit with stronger safeguards - if we want to increase our energy security. I disagree. We wouldn't ever be secure, even if we drilled every well off our nation's coasts.

As the controversy persists over a Pennsylvania legislative proposal to increase requirements for alternative-energy use, a major opponent of the measure - the state Chamber of Business and Industry - is launching what it hopes is a viable alternative. Its goal is to create a market for a variety of clean-energy options - without government mandates. "We're going to need wind, solar, natural gas to move forward" as companies increasingly embrace more sustainable ways of doing business, acknowledged Gene Barr, the chamber's vice president of government and public affairs.

Citing the need for compromise and a fresh start, advocates for long-stalled legislation that would substantially increase Pennsylvania's requirements for alternative-energy use - and, the theory goes, the state's attractiveness to green industry - say they are taking a new approach. It looks a lot like the old one. Whether it meets the same resistance should be apparent shortly. By early next week, a bill is expected to be introduced in the state House that would more than double the percentage of electricity sold by utilities that must come from so-called Tier 1 clean-energy sources.

Comedians are going to have a field day with the newly formed Sunrise Party of Japan. It's not a terrible name, considering this is the land of the rising sun and all. When its two founders have an average age of 71.5, though, Sunset Party seems more accurate. This septuagenarian group aims to revitalize an economy plagued by deflation and out-of-control debt. Instead, it only highlights a paucity of youthful energy and the demographic perils facing Japan's future and credit rating.

IS PRESIDENT Obama's announcement Wednesday that he is reversing U.S. policy (and his previous position) to allow oil drilling off the Atlantic and Arctic coasts and in parts of the Gulf of Mexico a flat betrayal, as many environmental groups charge? Is it yet another case of Obama negotiating with himself, and caving in-as he did with health-care reform and financial reform? Just a month ago, the president authorized $8 billion in loan guarantees to build nuclear reactors (A Republican favorite)

Union president Jim Savage doesn't represent the 400 workers who learned yesterday that Sunoco Inc. would permanently shut down the Eagle Point refinery in Westville, Gloucester County. But he does represent other Sunoco refinery workers - and he thinks they and other "old energy" workers are being left out of all the talk about new and green energy. "It has created a lot of anxiety," said Savage, who leads United Steelworkers Local 10-1. And no wonder. Old-energy jobs in mining, refineries, and electricity tend to be union jobs with decent wages and benefits.

At the same time Gov. Rendell was celebrating Pennsylvania's success in luring a Greek solar-cell manufacturer to the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, proposed legislation he calls critical to helping the state become a major alternative-energy player was languishing. Advocates had hoped House Bill 80 - which would significantly boost Pennsylvania's clean-energy standards and its commitment to alternative energy - would be passed by year's end. But those hopes faded last week, when the legislature exhausted the rest of its 2009 working calendar mired in debate over whether to allow poker, roulette, and other games at the state's casinos.

Our nation's clean-energy future has been one of the most debated issues in Washington in recent months. As Congress works to pass a landmark energy and climate bill, the conversation has often fallen into a familiar pattern of right against left, and Democrats against Republicans - partisan divides that threaten to hold back necessary change. But when I travel beyond the environs of Washington, I hear a different discussion. People across the nation ask me about clean-energy jobs in their communities.

Arie Versendaal spent 20 years stamping steel into washing machines at Maytag, following his grandfather and uncle into the factory that provided the ticket to prosperity here for more than a century. He figured eventually he'd get the traditional "30 and out" plant walk-through that ushered the Maytagger into a generous retirement. Instead, the plant closed for good in October 2007. Versendaal carried his personal tools to his truck, past work boots dangling from the gates. "I haven't thought about it in two years.