GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

Chu: U.S. Lags in Clean Tech Race

Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the U.S. lags behind other countries in the race for clean technology even though it has the greatest "innovation machine" in the world.

Chu spoke Monday at Stanford Univerity, where he led the Physics Department from 1990 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2001.

The Palo Alto News reported Tuesday that he told the audience that other countries are ahead in auto fuel efficiency, batteries, electricity transmission, power electronics and nuclear power.

China, for example, spends $9 billion a month to diversify and improve its clean-energy supply, and has a goal of generating 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by this year and 15 percent by 2020.

Chu asked the head of China's state grid how he gets the money from the government.

"He said, 'Of course nobody likes money taken out of their wallet, but we tell them (government leaders) how important it is,' Chu said.

Not only are Americans in a race against other countries to develop clean technology, he said, they're in a race against time, and only a sustained scientific collaboration could sufficiently address the challenge.

There is no doubt that climate change is occurring, Chu said. The only debate is how bad the effects are going to be.

"If we plow on as usual it could be catastrophic; it could be very bad, or very, very bad. But it's not going to be, 'Nothing's going to happen,' " he said.

The most important policy needed to stimulate innovation and investment in clean tech, he said, is a "long-term signal in the form of a price on carbon that will slowly ratchet up, and a cap on carbon."

He said the price signal would provide certainty to utility companies deciding wether to use nuclear, wind, coal or gas for generation. And it would liberate financial markets to loan money to new technologies.

"A slight change in those long-term signals will cause the American innovation machine to respond," he said.

Chu also said the U.S. must use energy more wisely, deploy the low-carbon technology we have, improve energy storage and "discover the breakthroughs we need."

But he had no doubt that America would rise to the challenge.

"The U.S. innovation machine is the greatest in the world," said Chu. "When given the right incentives, [it] will respond."

Source: Palo Alto News