Obama's Green Promises
The following are proposals from the administration on improving the environment. They are based on selected pieces from “Barack Obama and Joe Biden: Promoting A Healthy Environment.”
It’s important to view these proposals as starting points for legislation, especially in light of the fact that the economy has worsened since the campaign, and Congress will doubtless want to put its own stamp on green legislation.
- Reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050.
- Extend the federal Production Tax Credit for five years to encourage the deployment of renewable technologies.
- Create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund.
- Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to speed the introduction of low-carbon, non-petroleum fuels, requiring fuel suppliers to reduce the carbon their fuels emit by 10 percent by 2020.
- Establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the United States comes from clean, sustainable energy sources.
- Propose that at least 30 percent of the federal government’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.
- All new federal buildings will be zero emissions by 2025 and all new federal buildings will be 40 percent more efficient within five years. Existing federal buildings will improve their efficiency by 25 percent within five years.
- Establish a goal of having all new buildings carbon neutral by 2030, and also establish a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent during the next decade to reach the 2030 goal.
- Create a competitive grant program to award to states and localities that take the first steps in implementing new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency.
- Provide incentives for energy conservation by ensuring utilities get increased profits for improving energy efficiency instead of higher energy consumption.
- Expand federal grant programs to help states and localities build more efficient public buildings that adopt aggressive green building provisions.
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