[Pen-l] Post Carbon Institute Real New Deal

[ehrbar <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

REAL NEW DEAL proposal by Post Carbon Institute, lead author Richard
Heinberg, identifies 5 areas of action: massive shift to renewable
energy, electrify transportation system, re-build the electricity
grid, de-carbonize and re-localize the food system, and retrofit
building stock for energy conservation/production.  They recommend
tradable carbon rations.  This is the position I have been gravitating
twowards myself.  Carbon rationing means money becomes
two-dimensional.  This is not too complicated but a necessity because
the economic problem itself is two-dimensional: we have to put our
economic resources to best use while staying within a shrinking carbon
budget.  My only complaint is that they do not address the
international dimension of the problem.  Besides de-carbonizing their
own economy, the US must also spend an almost equal amount helping
developing countries on a carbon-free development path.  This is one
of the necessities the US is facing, and the American public should be
made aware of it.

Hans G. Ehrbar

Press release:

http://www.postcarbon.org/post_carbon_institute_proposes_real_new_deal_energy_economic_and_environmental_recovery_incoming_obama_administration

Here is the 22-page document (2.5 MB):

http://www.postcarbon.org/real-new-deal


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Our continued national dependence on fossil fuels is creating a dangerous 
vulnerability to both long-term fuel scarcity and catastrophic climate  change.
The current economic crisis requires substantial national policy  shifts and
enormous new government injections of capital into the economy. This  provides
an opportunity for a project whose scope would otherwise be  inconceivable: a
large-scale, fast-track transition from fossil fuels to  renewable energy.
This project must happen immediately; indeed, it may  already be too late. We
have already left behind the era of cheap fossil fuels,  with a permanent
decline of global oil production likely underway within three  years.1,2
Moreover, the latest research suggests we have less than eight years  to bring carbon
emissions under control if we hope to avoid catastrophic climate  change.3
Lacking this understanding of the urgency of fossil fuel depletion and  climate
change, a mere shift away from foreign oil dependence will fail to meet  the
challenges at hand.

The energy transition must not be limited to building  wind turbines and
solar panels. It must include the thorough redesign of our  economic and societal
infrastructure, which today is utterly dependent on cheap  fossil fuels. It
must address not only our transportation system and electricity  grid, but also
our food system and building stock.

Our 21st century nation's  dependence on 20th century fossil fuels is the
root of the economic and  environmental threats we face. A coordinated,
comprehensive transition to an  economy that is no longer dependent on hydrocarbon
fuels and no longer emits  climate-changing levels of carbon - a Real New Deal for
a post-carbon world -  will be the Obama Administration's greatest
opportunity to lead the nation on a  path toward economic, energy and environmental
recovery.
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