Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that companies complied with the rules), though probably at greater
cost. At the far end of the spectrum are tools known as performance
standards. h ey explicitly dictate requirements for individual power
plants. In 2012, for example, the U.S. government set a standard requir-
ing that carbon emissions from new plants fall below a certain thresh-
old; the line was low enough that it ef ectively ruled out new facilities
using coal. h ese are usually the least l exible of all the options. h ey
tend to be relatively unambitious (the 2012 standard would have done
nothing for renewable power) in order to make up for their lack of
l exibility. If they aren't, they can be dangerous; for example, meeting
overly aggressive rules requiring renewable energy could require huge
and unpredictable sums of money.
h e other set of tools seeks to make clean energy cheaper, ot en a
far more politically palatable enterprise on its face than one that might
raise electricity bills. h e typical way this has been done is through
broad-based subsidies. h e big problem with subsidies, though, is that
they're cheap only so long as they're relatively inef ective; once they
start spurring large-scale growth, their total costs mount, and they
come under political i re. Germany is a great example here. It is ot en
ridiculed for subsidizing solar power despite its cloudy weather, but in
some ways that's precisely the point: if Germany were sunny, the sub-
sidies would encourage so much deployment of solar power that the
government bill would go through the roof. h e same thing is true in
the United States. Insofar as the country could af ord the sorts of subsi-
dies it handed out to wind and solar over the last decade, af ordability
would be trashed if the technologies took of considerably further and
maintenance of high levels of subsidies continued.
h is is why people in the “make clean energy cheap” camp have
increasingly focused on support for innovation. h e idea is to use gov-
ernment support in the near term to permanently reduce the cost of
clean energy, ultimately obviating any need for subsidies, mandates, or
things like carbon taxes. Some advocates focus on support for research
and development (R&D), like the chemistry behind bet er bat eries and
the nanoscience that could yield stronger materials for wind turbine
blades. h is sort of role for government is relatively uncontroversial:
Washington has been supporting basic R&D for a long time.
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