Greentech Media

Politicians around the world took greentech-friendly steps this year, although new policies in the United States weren't as strong as some had hoped for after an election last year turned the U.S. congressional majority to the Democrats (see US Election Mixed Bag for Cleantech and Cleantech Rises on Dem House).

In January, Congress considered a bill that would have taxed oil companies to subsidize clean energy (see Will Oil Money Boost Clean Energy?). The same idea was introduced into the energy bill, in a provision that would have repealed about $13 billion in oil subsidies to defray the cost of $21.5 billion in renewable tax credits (see House Passes Energy Bill). Neither of those proposals made it into law.

The U.S. Congress did pass an energy bill that strengthened fuel-economy standards for vehicles for the first time in more than 30 years, requiring car manufacturers' fleets to average 35 miles per gallon (see President Signs Energy Bill and Senate Rejects Green Incentives to Pass Energy Bill). The energy bill also set a renewable-fuel standard that mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2020, with 20 billion of those gallons coming from nonfood crops.

But while biofuel companies rejoiced, other greentech advocates were disappointed by the exclusion of the renewable tax credits and a standard that would have required utilities to get 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources (see Senate Sends Energy Bill Back to Beginning, House Passes Energy Bill, Will Greentech Get Anything from the Energy Bill? and Renewable Tax Credit and Portfolio Standard Could Get Cut From Energy Bill).

"It was a huge heartbreak," said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. "We had over 100,000 people write letters. When we look back, we can say that the biggest push that we made was for the energy bill."

The United States also opposed the idea of mandatory emissions controls at environmental talks in Bali, as countries negotiated a pollution policy to succeed the Kyoto Policy set to expire in 2012. But the countries managed to find at least a little bit of common ground and agreed on an agenda and timetable for two years of negotiations aiming to create a new treaty (see Bali Summit Yields Plans to Plan and U.S., U.N. Negotiate the Future of Greentech).

In the meantime, individual states pushed the green envelope with their own green policies. Florida and Oregon stepped up their renewable portfolio standards and Arizona created a new standard that requires utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.

California continued to lead the pack, passing the nation's first cap on global-warming emissions and a standard that reduces carbon emissions from transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020 (see Carbon Cut For California Fuels). The state also sued the Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver to allow it to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from vehicles. A federal judge supported California, but the EPA denied the waiver and the state pledged to sue again.

Europe also passed aggressive policies, solidifying the continent's green leadership. Early in the year, the European Commission set binding targets requiring member nations to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 (see Ambitious and Binding). Later, the group proposed emissions caps for automakers (see Forcing Down Car Emissions in the EU).

Not all the targets that were set will materialize. Analysts have said the EU and Japan are likely to fall short of their goals. And in California, some have called it "impossible" for utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2010, although utilities are have said they plan to at least have reached that goal in contracts -- if not in actual production -- by then.

Still, the measures have sparked industry activity. In California, for instance, the standard led to new opportunities for technologies such as solar-thermal, geothermal and wave energy (see Wave Energy Finds a Buyer, FPL and PG&E Back Solar-Thermal and Ausra to Build 177-Megawatt Solar-Thermal Plant).

And advocates are hopeful that future policies will be greener. In the course of the failed effort to retain solar subsidies in the energy bill, the solar association established "significant political credibility" that it will be able to tap into in 2008, Resch said. Others have said they are looking forward to 2009, when they hope to get a president less resistant to global-warming-fighting measures, and Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, said it is clear politicians can no longer run from the climate-change issue (see Greentech Week: Green Rules Around the World).