While world leaders meet in Copenhagen to
discuss a new set of global tax punishments for energy consuming nations, many of us are looking for substantive ways to achieve energy sustainability at home.
Forthose who elevate the power of the individual citizen and industrialistover the power of conglomerates and global tax punishment schemes,incentives are an obvious way to achieve a citizen-driven change in theway we fuel our lifestyles.
Newt Gingrich, General Chairman of American Solutions, has
spoken forcefully in favor of incentivizing sustainable energy choicesrather than punishing people and the markets in which they buy andinvest for daring to use fuels that a foreign committee deemsundesirable.
Geothermal & Solar Energy SolutionsWhenit comes to finding a compelling and workable solution to the challengeof sustainable energy and cost-efficient consumption for homeowners,businesses and individuals, geothermal energy and solar panels are twocost efficient, long term choices.
The cost of a geothermal heating solution, which is
installed in the ground and
uses the natural, stable heat of the earthto heat and cool one's home and water, is between $3,500-$7,500. Solarpanels can cost as low as $1,000 or as much as $15,000 to power theaverage home.
Imagine how rapidly the heating and coolingconsumption of the average citizen could shift from reliance on fossilfuels to sustainable, renewable geothermal or solar if, for instance,state or federal government offered tax breaks to home developers likeToll Brothers for developing entire neighbors -- 150-500 homes at atime -- that relied on self-sustaining systems.
Higher Initial Home Cost, Far Lower Long Term Energy CostHomeare already costly, but if developers were offered a basic incentive tobuild homes to a new, different standard (similar to other basic codeand inspection mandates), homeowners could invest in their next homeknowing that, despite paying slightly more initially, they would savethousands in heating and cooling costs over the lifetime of the system.(Geothermal systems last, on average, 25 years -- about as long as mostroofs.)
The current, stale debate over the shift to sustainableenergy options has largely broken between two camps: those who (a)acknowledge the reality that fossil fuels are currently both necessaryand the most cost efficient for the majority of American energy needs,and those who (b) reject market realities and instead seek to imposemassive national tax punishment schemes on all citizens and thebusinesses that serve their energy needs.
Yet in focusing solelyon a national debate over the status quo versus radical punishmentschemes, smaller scale, consumer-business incentive options likegeothermal and solar incentives seem to be falling through the cracksof the national energy/sustainability discourse.
A Real World Example Of The Power Of Vision And Price IncentivesForan example of the kind of shift to real sustainability that is possiblewith market incentives and long-term vision, a real world illustrationcomes to mind in the form of a good friend and Catholic pastor inPhiladelphia.
His parish, located on the outskirts of the city,serves a modest parish community. The parish runs a school thateducates more than 200 city students each year, and the energy costswere demanding, costing more than $50,000 to heat and cool the schoolannually.
Earlier this year, he struck a deal with a localgrantmaker along with a solar company to go solar and install panels onthe roof of the school. The entire system will cost nearly $1.5million, but the grantmaker has donated enough to make the systemrevenue-producing within about a decade.
In Pennsylvania, surplus solar energy production must be purchased and re-fed into the grid by
PECO,meaning that the solar system will actually produce revenues for theparish and eventually produce profits for the church and school oncethe system is fully paid off.
A Model For A More Robust Sustainable Energy SolutionAsthe national energy dialog continues, Americans who believe intri-partisan solutions to our energy challenge should advocate andimplement incentives on a local and regional level, working withgovernment, grantmakers and industry to implement solutions best suitedfor their area and circumstance.
Instead of punishing consumersof energy and the producers of heating oil, coal and other fossil fuelsby imposing global and national tax punishment schemes, let's focus onworking at a local and regional level with existing stakeholders(energy produces, home builders, commercial developers, individualcitizens) to create workable, incentive-based strategies that willpromote a culture of energy sustainability and financial independence.
http://www.americansolutions.com/energy/