By Cliff Montgomery – July 20th, 2009
A climate bill which the House of Representatives passed in June will fail to achieve its goals without a sharpincrease in research and development funds, a group of U.S. Nobel Laureates told President Obama in amemo sent to the White House on July 16th.
The thirty-four laureates specifically called on Obama to fight for his $150 billion Clean Energy TechnologyFund proposal, which the laureates hope will be included in the final climate legislation.
“The stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed ifthe U.S., as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at anaffordable cost,” wrote the laureates.
“This stable R&D spending is not a luxury,” they continued. “[I]t is in fact necessary because rapid scientificand technical progress is crucial to achieving” affordable reductions in both global warming and energy use.
The short letter points out that the House climate bill “provides less than one fifteenth of the amount”proposed by the president “for federal energy research, development, and demonstration programs.”
The Senate may begin debate on its version of the bill in the next few weeks.
The White House wants to use cap-and-trade system funds to bankroll a Clean Energy Technology Fund, atan annual cost of $15 billion over the next decade. Obama’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget would use the fund toimplement energy technologies and increase research and development–the core of his much-needed “greenjobs” initiative.
By contrast, the House bill “provides no stable, specific funding for sustained research in the Department ofEnergy’s (DOE) Office of Science, or for the energy research and associated technology developmentprograms of DOE (at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity Deliverability, Fossil, andNuclear offices),” according to the laureates.
The House legislation would create tech utilization programs for such well-connected but aging industries as oilrefineries, coal and autos, but would only provide 1.5 percent of its funds for energy research anddevelopment. The bill also fails to provide any support for Obama’s proposed Fund.
“This is a dangerous omission,” wrote Burton Richter, Nobel Prize in Physics winner and leader of thedistinguished group of laureates.
“Much can be done with the current generation of technologies. However, study after study has confirmedthat to combine growing prosperity worldwide with sharply reduced production of greenhouse gases will requiretechnological advances that are possible only through research,” he added.
