February 5, 2009

Council passes Clean Tech Summit recommendations

By Carol Rosen
Editor

This week’s San Jose City Council’s meeting was far less divisive than the previous meeting.

The highlight of the Feb. 3 agenda was the recommendations from the Clean Tech Summit held last December, which received unanimous approval by the council members with only a short discussion prior to the vote. The ideas list a number of priorities whose agenda is to provide incentives for companies to develop more clean non-carbon technologies thus boosting the local economy and at the same time providing residents with less-expensive energy, creating new jobs and helping slow global warming.

Mayor Chuck Reed introduced the proposals. District 2 Councilmember Ash Kalra, who replaced the termed-out Forrest Williams, asked the mayor to define the priorities and state, which were near term and more future oriented, but otherwise the discussion was brief.

The council plans to pass on these 32 recommendations, along with seven guiding principles, to state and federal lobbyists as a focus for 2009-10 as well as to Bay area entities including non-government organizations, financial institutions and businesses in order to create uniform local policies and practices, according to the memo.

The summit, held last December, focused on energy, transportation and finance. It consisted of 18 people with interests or involved in state and local government—either elected or not, private sector businesses and regulatory agencies. It also reiterated the 15 Green Vision Goals the council expects to accomplish within the next 14 years including:

—Creation of 25,000 clean tech jobs

—Reducing per capita energy use by 50 percent

—Receiving 100 percent electrical power from clean renewable sources

—Building or retrofitting 50 million square feet of green buildings

—Diverting 100 percent of waste from landfills and converting it to energy

—Recycle of beneficially reuse 100 percent of wastewater (100 million gallons per day)

—Adopt a general plan with measurable standards for sustainable development

—Ensure 100 percent of public fleet vehicles operate on alternative fuels

—Plant 100,000 new trees and replace all streetlights with zero-emission lighting

—Create 100 miles of interconnected trails.

The seven guiding principles include investment in innovation and clean tech manufacturing to job creation; removing barriers to consumer adoption, spurring national demand for clean tech products; taking the long term view and increasing market stability; encouraging development of all technologies by promoting technology neutrality; preparing the green collar workforce for the future; and leveling the playing field.

The panel members at the summit then divided the legislative priorities into different factions. For example, in the area of supporting American innovation and manufacturing, they came up with five guidelines including providing incentives for domestic manufacturing; promoting consumer purchasing of domestically made products; accelerating investment in clean tech research, development and commercialization; ensuring access to credit for emerging clean tech companies and; funding large-scale demonstration and deployment projects.

The panel determined nine priorities for creating a national market and increased demand for clean products. These included enhancing renewable energy tax credits, adopting a national renewable portfolio standard, setting emission reduction targets and adopting market-based compliance mechanisms, fully funding energy efficiency and conservation block grants, procuring renewable energy and zero-emission vehicles, expanding and upgrading transmission infrastructure, establishing national standards for interconnection and net metering, creating national green building standards and increasing available resources for green collar career training programs.

To spur California manufacturing, the panel came up with four priorities. These included focusing on production, expanding the California Alternative Energy & Advanced Transportation Financing Authority financing model to renewable energy companies, providing incentives for the public and private sectors to buy California, and reducing initial operating expenses for companies seeking to grow or locate in California.

The 18 panelists determined eight priorities to continue expanding the market for clean tech products. These eight actions are to promote urban utility-scale generation, create a feed-in tariff for solar and other renewable energy producers and allow consumer production to count toward a utility’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, simplify and standardize available incentives for renewable energy production, expand aggregate net-metering to the private sector, adopt smart meters and develop smart grid demonstrations, expand state green building standards, expand the state renewable portfolio standard and increase availability of resources for green collar career training programs.

The final six priorities that the summit panelists outlined are to increase regional coordination. Under this category are establishment of regional green career training programs, expanding public-private partnerships and demonstration projects, establishing regional green building standards, standardizing and simplifying permitting and review processes within local jurisdictions, creating a regional infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles and reducing upfront costs for consumers with creative payment plans.