There’s something a little stirring about the president of the United States praising your efforts. It’s particularly heartwarming when he does it before a national audience and a gathering of all the key federal policymakers. So there were understandable cheers among clean energy advocates when President Obama embraced industrial energy efficiency in his State of the Union Address.

Here’s the actual quote, delivered from the podium before a joint session of Congress:

“Of course, the easiest way to save money is to waste less energy. So here’s another proposal: Help manufacturers eliminate energy waste in their factories and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. Their energy bills will be $100 billion lower over the next decade, and America will have less pollution, more manufacturing, and more jobs for construction workers who need them. Send me a bill that creates these jobs.”

Pundits, of course, have suggested several of the president’s proposals are not Republican favorites. Yet enhancing manufacturing efficiency and productivity is as bipartisan as you can get. Which party would ever be in favor of energy waste?

The challenge, of course, is having the two parties act together. Opportunities abound, including an extension of the Treasury grant program, expansion of the combined heat and power (CHP) tax credit, and a clean energy standard that highlights efficient CHP and clean waste heat recovery.

More than 200 companies signed a full-page advertisement placed in three Capitol Hill newspapers declaring industrial energy efficiency will put a million Americans to work. The ad, coordinated by The Pew Charitable Trusts, explains that U.S. utilities and factories send enough heat up their chimneys to power all of Japan. But with existing, proven technologies, we can harness that wasted energy, dramatically cut electricity costs, and make our manufacturers more competitive.

The print ad references the Oak Ridge National Laboratory study explaining how increased use of combined heat and power would “spur more than $200 billion in new private investment in the U.S., and create up to 1,000,000 jobs.”

Signers include major corporations like DuPont and Dow Chemical Company, labor unions like Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and United Steelworkers, trade associations like the American Gas Association, environmental groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists, and small firms like Recycled Energy Development.

Learn more about industrial energy efficiency here.

Bloomberg Government, a new media outlet focused on the business implications of government, recently profiled the remarkable economic and environmental benefits of waste heat recovery and other energy recycling techniques. The article also covers the efforts of members of the Alliance for Industrial Efficiency—including RED, GE, Dow Chemical, Sierra Club, and others—to ensure this clean energy solution gets the recognition it deserves in Washington.

During the last U.S. Congressional session, the Alliance advocated for industrial energy efficiency tax incentives that would increase manufacturing competitiveness, create jobs, and reduce pollution. The incentives bills, S. 1639 (sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM and Olympia Snowe, R-ME), and H.R. 4751 (sponsored by Rep. Paul Tonko, D-NY and Dean Heller, R-NV), received strong bipartisan support but didn’t make it into the final tax package.

RED’s Tom Casten, quoted in the piece, gets right to the point: “[Waste heat recovery] is a tremendous opportunity to cut costs, the amount of fuel we are burning, and to cut CO2.”

Exactly. So it’s time to enact legislation that puts energy recycling on the same footing with other clean energy sources like wind and solar.  The article explains why:

• “As much as 20 percent to 50 percent of the energy that manufacturing processes consume is released as waste heat, according to a 2008 Energy Department report. That power can be used by the factory where it’s captured, sold to the local power grid, or both.”
• “Heat vented from facilities such as steel mills, cement kilns, glass manufacturers and natural-gas compressor stations could generate enough clean energy to power more than 7 million homes, based on a study by ICF International … That is the equivalent of $4.3 billion in annual electricity costs.”
• “Together, waste heat and cogeneration can provide as much as 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, equal to the amount now generated by the nuclear-power industry, [according to] the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.”

Tax incentives for energy recycling would also help industry meet planned EPA carbon dioxide emissions standards. The EPA’s recently issued guidance for greenhouse gas emissions permits (PSD and Title V Permitting Guidance for Greenhouse Gases) makes energy efficiency the centerpiece of its compliance options. It recognizes energy recycling techniques including waste heat recovery and combined heat and power (CHP) as cost-effective ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial sector.

Sen. Bingaman plans to work with Sen. Snowe to advance the tax breaks this year, according to a statement issued by his staff on Dec. 17.

So there you have it. Let’s hope this is the first of many big stories in 2011 on benefits of waste heat — and that this is the year Congress gives it its due.

We hope you’ll be hearing a lot more about energy recycling now that several companies in the field have teamed up to launch a new initiative called Heat is Power. The goal is to educate lawmakers and the public about the enormous potential of the type of energy recycling known as waste heat recovery—or as they put it, “WH2E” (waste heat to electricity)—to help solve our energy woes and put America back to work. According to Heat is Power, WH2E is the “missing link to America’s clean energy future” and has the potential to “boost U.S. competitiveness and keep American industry in America by providing a new source of profit or cheap onsite clean electricity for our industrial manufacturers.”

The group also points out that, “no country is yet a leader in exports of this technology… American companies today can manufacture this technology with greater than 90% American content. Capturing the export market of this technology will catapult the United States in the global clean energy race and result in the creation of sustained American manufacturing jobs.”

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) just released the results of a comprehensive study on how to improve industrial energy efficiency. It makes an important point: it pays to invest in recycled energy.

Conducted by Keybridge Research and the University of Maryland’s Inforum Modeling Project, the study looked at IECA’s Sustainable Manufacturing & Growth Initiative policy recommendations, which include investment tax credits for combined heat and power (CHP) and recycled energy, a Clean Energy Standard Offer Program (CESOP) and other proposals. The researchers found that implementing IECA’s recommendations would dramatically improve American manufacturing competitiveness and:

• Increase real GDP by $77 billion in 2020.
• Increase cumulative employment by 9.4 million job-years in 2010-2030.
• Increase cumulative private investment by more than $1 trillion in 2010-2030.
• Increase family income by an average of $788 (0.68%) in 2020.
• Increase cumulative net exports by $392 billion in 2010-2030.
• Reduce energy-related GHG emissions by 13% in 2020.

The study goes on to say that “the net fiscal cost associated with the IECA recommendations would be less than 0.1% of discretionary government spending between 2011-2030, and would result in a cumulative increase in real GDP growth that is approximately 20 times greater than the cumulative net fiscal cost — providing U.S. taxpayers with significant ‘bang for the buck.’”

How many times have we heard that “clean coal” is the answer to our energy worries? It’s as if all you have to do is rinse off the coal before you burn it and — presto! —  you get clean, cheap energy.

The truth is, coal’s only cheap if it’s dirty. RED’s Sean Casten has a column on this subject in Grist.  Sean writes, “There are no plausible futures where coal with [carbon capture and storage] is economically viable… Proponents will argue that (a) it may be expensive now, but with R&D its price will come down and (b) since coal plays such a significant role in our electric system today, [clean] coal… simply must play a role in the electric system of the future. Neither assertion stands up to economic scrutiny.”

The best way to clean up coal is to use less of it by generating more power from clean and affordable sources like energy recycling.

It was Sean Casten in 2009. Now it’s Craig Bennett in 2010. 
 
The prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs has again recognized the caliber of RED’s management team by naming Craig Bennett to its Emerging Leaders Class of 2010. 
 
Established in 2008 with support from the McCormick Foundation, the goal of the program is to identify and engage future thought leaders who will help Chicago compete and thrive in the global era. Each Emerging Leaders class examines, discusses, and makes recommendations on timely policy issues such as energy and the environment, the global economy, foreign policy, and migration.
 
Craig is a vice president and associate general counsel at RED and has ten years experience in the energy industry. He’s also a general in the Army National Guard.  We’re proud that the Chicago Council has recognized his expertise and look forward to seeing the work of the Class of ’10. 
 
By choosing RED executives two years in a row, the Chicago Council is clearly taking notice of the potential of energy recycling to change the way the U.S. makes power. 

RED Chairman Tom Casten has a new piece in the Chicago Tribune about the need for a sensible energy policy that rewards efficient, clean power generation like energy recycling.

He writes: “The dramatic images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico serve as a stark reminder that America needs to transition to a new clean energy economy… For the last 30 years, I have watched America increase our energy dependence and lose our competitive edge, in part because of a grossly inefficient energy system… Despite its potential to cut energy costs and greenhouse emissions while preserving manufacturing jobs, energy recycling languishes in the U.S. because of outdated and badly misguided energy policies… By enacting meaningful clean energy legislation, the federal government can finally unleash a wave of American innovation, cutting our dependence on fossil fuels while we develop both cleaner and cheaper domestic power.”

Read the full op-ed here.

Photo courtesy of NOAA.

In the heart of coal country, a simple truth is gaining traction: recycled energy is clean energy.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin just signed legislation designating recycled energy a renewable source of power within the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). That’s a big deal: it means utilities—which already have to buy a portion of their power from alternative and renewable sources—are now more likely to buy recycled energy from West Virginia manufacturers. The result will be a stronger manufacturing sector, more jobs, and a cleaner environment.

So what’s the takeaway here? It’s this: clean energy is clean energy, and it should be rewarded no matter what form it takes. Wind is clean. Solar is clean. Recycled energy is clean. All of it matters. We can’t be narrow-minded about what pathways to a clean energy economy we’re willing to pursue. If something works, we need to reward it.

West Virginia gets that. Which state is next?

Our own Tom Casten will lead a symposium on energy recycling at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Although conventional wisdom assumes that mitigating climate change will raise the cost of energy, this symposium will present a contrary view: that many proven technologies can substantially increase the efficiency of generating heat and power, cutting energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously.

The event is entitled Gray Is the New Green: How Energy Recycling Curbs Both Global Warming and Power Costs. It will take place February 21 at 8:30am in San Diego.

The panelists include several renowned energy experts:

• Tom, who will discuss the economics of clean energy by comparing the costs of 14 clean energy options such as wind, solar, nuclear, and cogeneration. Casten will argue that improving “generation efficiency” has the greatest potential to benefit the economy while reducing greenhouse gas pollution.
• Lester Lave, professor at Carnegie Mellon University and co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. He will report on the work of a committee on energy efficiency that he recently chaired for the National Academy of Sciences. Among other things, Lave will report that the U.S. could bring total energy use back to mid-1980s levels simply through energy efficiency.
• Marilyn Brown, professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and former leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She will discuss the many policy barriers to energy efficiency and present policy suggestions to help overcome these barriers. Her recommendations will be based on her own research and emphasize the imperative of serving current economic needs without blocking efficiency investments.
• Lawrence Ambs, professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and co-director of the Northeast Regional Combined Heat & Power Application Center. He will serve as the symposium’s discussant, or moderator.

Those who are familiar with RED’s work know the basic contours of Tom’s argument, which is this. The U.S. energy system is grossly inefficient. The typical power plant throws away two-thirds of its energy, largely in the form of waste heat, when producing electricity. This abysmal rate, while tragic, presents an opportunity: increasing the efficiency of our energy system would help enable us to stave off the catastrophic effects of climate change while increasing national income and improving the quality of life.

Tom has never before presented to the AAAS, so this is an exciting opportunity.