National Clean Energy Project Part 15/16

Leaders from the public and private sectors met in Washington, DC on February 23rd to discuss ideas to reform U.S. energy policy, and pave the wave for our economic future part 15/16.

National Clean Energy Project Part 15/16 Senator Reid: As we have this discussion, if I were sitting where you were, I would have a certain amount of from time to time discomfort as some of the fuels that have been responsible for driving our society, have been perhaps a little bit maligned from time to time. Others have been encouraged from time to time. There have to be ways in which we can deal technically with so many of these to bring more natural gas on line where that’s possible to engage Steven Chu was suggesting many of the problems that exist in the cruel world. Maybe you could post with the view on looking at those fuels and how terribly important it is for us not only to understand how to deal with these fuels but also how we can do that in a way that makes us more secure as a country. And again from all of us, thank you for helping together, solve together here and launching this major effort. T. Boone Pickens: Senator, I would like say that—and I’m going to go back to at the end of my sophomore year in college that we must have a plan, we got to have a plan to solve the problem and I keep hoping, I know, no year, no plan in 40 years but my dad said at the end of our sophomore year he said, “Son, fuel with the plan cannot beat the changes with no plan.” And I’m afraid that I have a fuel with no plan and I see us here just don’t let this opportunity get away from us, we got to have a plan. The natural gas, there’s no question, it’s the only thing that’s going to replace diesel. So we have to use it and it's abundant, it’s cheap and it’s ours that is a key. The light duty goes to the battery and that’s why it should go. The natural gas will be the bridge to the next generation of transportation fuels. How long does it last? 20 to 30 years. If the solution comes quicker natural gas is so valuable to our country, it can be used in so many other ways it doesn’t have to be used for transportation but here it's going to have to feel that void, no other fuel that we have that will move a big vehicle. So 40 years, we have been caught in the same trap, cheap oil that I can tell you that’s over with. They’ve told you, Naomi told you on the 60 minute show that they have to have $70.00 to $75.00 for the oil. Listen to them because they are telling you the truth. They do have to have that and you’re going to get it. You were going to have it by end of the year. Now, I’ll say that in two we’re going to be back up to 140, is where you’re going to go. So we need to move as quickly as we can to solve the problem and this is the time for leadership, it's the time for leadership and I—around this table what a great day it's been for me to see the comments that are made, an effort here that is nothing to do with politics. It’s clearly a bad part it’s an issue is energy problem for America is going to be solved but don’t be stopped, I’ll close with the story. Don’t be stopped by the 10% that are—I don’t care what it is they’re opposed and I want to—we had an old gentleman in my county where I live and where my range is in Robertson County, Texas. He was 90 years old, he was born in that country and they lived there for 90 years really didn’t enjoy living the county. It was good enough for him, he liked it. We had got together at the county seat and at the gymnasium and pass through it and—I think and the person in front of me said Mr. Wise said, “It is remarkable, said you’re born this country you lived here 90 years”. He said that in that 90 years, you saw a lot of changes, didn’t you?” And he said, yeah and I also guessed every damn one of them.” That’s the 10% that we can’t let stop this. Thank you. Timothy Wirth: Thank you very much and I know all of us will join together and come to still water to the Thickens Arena and award you the Collective Nobel in planning an effective activity when all of this legislation get fast. T. Boone Pickens: I’ll be ready. Okay thanks. Timothy Wirth: Albert Gore. Vice President Gore: Well, thank again Tim for your great leadership and I’m struck by the tone of this meeting and the sense of purpose, there’s a real inspiration here and I’m really happy about it. One time when I was working as newspaper reporter, my wife Tipper and I got a puppy for our youngest children and a woman that work in advertising had sidelined as a dog trainer and we got her to come over and help us with the training and she sat us down first and she said, “Okay, before we begin, what is this puppy’s purpose?” As to what’s going to be a puppy and she said, ”No, it's in going to be a morning dog, is it going to be a watchdog, is it going to fetch and then she said something that really stuck with me. She said, “The puppy has to have a purpose”. And if that’s true so do we and I think our generation’s purpose is to save the habitability of the earth and again that sounds like lying with that’s quite unfamiliar. But Fred Butler referred to a tale for two cities. Here’s a tale of two plans. Earth and Venus are exactly the same size. They have exactly the same amount of carbon. The difference is, your honor is a miracle of life and the unique process as on earth to pull the carbon out of the atmosphere and left it buried in the ground and on Venus it's still in the atmosphere so whatever that it does make. Well, here the average annual temperature is 59?F and on Venus is 855 degrees Fahrenheit and it rains sulfuric acid and the whole difference is virtually, the whole difference is the distribution of the carbon in the planetary system and is relevant to our current global civilization on strategy of taking as much carbon out of the ground as quickly as we can but, put it in the atmosphere. So our purpose is quit doing that and to shift over to renewable resources. The second thing that hit me, Rickford— referred to the McKinsey Study. Now, there have been too much jargon in this session here today. It’s been great, it's been really accessible to me and I think that everybody, it's been a great discussion but I want to highlight what Ric is referring to there because I think it's a really important body of knowledge that we sometimes easily overlook. That study he is referring to is done for Swedish Technical Vattenfall and many people here have seen the graft that resulted. Drafts can be confusing but this one has been around so much and here’s what it shows. A great deal of the most effective things we can do to save energy, to save money and to reduce the CO2 do not have a price tag, they have an economic benefit. Amory Lovins who’s been right about a lot of things for a long time is so smart whenever he’s talking is like drinking from several fire hoses at the same time and he was going on and on one time and he said, “We got the sign wrong.” And I’m thinking, “Okay, this is Amory, he is talking about cosine, tangent, calculus and I went back as he explained that to me. He said, “No!” When I said sign I meant plus sign and minus sign. We’re putting a minus—we’re putting a plus sign to say this is going to cause a lot of money and the truth is, a lot of it has a minus sign. It saves us money so several have made the point that getting the economic incentives right in as Bobby said, “Getting a market place that unleashes all of this engineering and innovation is really the key with a lot of respects because presently, sometimes the incentives for the builder of a building for example, drive the builder to get the lowest first purchase price but the incentives for the person that’s paying the leaves or buying and operating that building are to get—are to pay attention to the lowest operating cost. But because those incentives are at a whack, the market does not help us as well as it should and could if we reach out, get that low hanging fruit, as they call it and get the economic savings that can come from reducing CO2 right away. Finally, the Unified National Smart Grid, whatever it ends being called, it has a gestalt about it when it’s all together, it gives us the ability to put that cost saving incentive into it and may clearly and plainly visible, easy to understand for all of us exactly where the savings can be made. Secondly, it gives us the opportunity to link the rooftop, this has been said, the rooftop installations and eventually shifts to a widely distributed energy production system. In the beginning, we’re going to have to have this utility scale in the Central Station Plans because that’s—we can't ship everything overnight but eventually with the Unified National Smart Grid it will be flung out to the periphery and we’ll have this widely distributed energy generation capacity and finally, it will also help us solve the battery problem because batteries are not only devices that sit in cars or in machines, they can also be—we can also have a widely distributed battery and Secretary Chu said earlier, it solves the intermittency problem because some place the wind is blowing, and some place the sun is shining and we can move it around but we can also use it to have stored electricity in cars while people are at work, in cars while people are asleep, in millions of smart devices that are connected with one another on the part of the internet that we as people don’t use that are constantly balancing these and the consumption goes down and down, electrifying the auto fleet using natural gas for the 18 wheelers and the heavy vehicles as the transition, then we can get off of all those imported liquid fuels that come from foreign oil and foreign products and solve the security and economic problem and put people who work in the process. So I really think, there have been very few meetings of this kind that I’ve gone through over the years that had as much consensus and good spirit as this one. I just think keeping the momentum going and get this thing really over the top, I’m really optimistic and hopeful. Thank you. Timothy Wirth: Thank you very much Mr. Vice President and you, as ever have given us an over all framework in the purpose of this puppy and we’re going to drive it and train it and make sure that it stays in the right room and does what it’s supposed to do as well.