March 15, 2008

Congress failed to deliver a green Christmas

By Steven F. Greenwald and Jeffrey P. Gray

Moving beyond the 2007 PTC failure

The (hopefully temporary) death of the PTC extension underscores how difficult it is to successfully implement an energy policy that reduces fossil fuel use. Two things are necessary.

First, we need credible and consistent means of making economic choices between alternatives. To that end, costs for a program must be objectively and quantitatively compared with the costs of alternatives, including inaction; one-dimensional “it costs too much” arguments should not determine the outcome of our energy debates.

Second, Washington must embrace the political reality that energy policy is an imperative national issue that cannot be delegated to 50 state legislatures and regulatory commissions. Our success (or failure) in responding to energy exigencies has national and global consequences that Congress is singularly capable of addressing.

One early lesson of the 21st century is that we need more than a convenient “union” of “Blue States” and “Red States” to fulfill the promise of this United States. Most certainly with respect to the PTC and other critical energy issues, Congress cannot abdicate its responsibilities to the idiosyncrasies of “independent” Green States and Brown States; the necessarily integrated and comprehensive national policy can only emerge from the United States.

—Steven F. Greenwald (stevegreenwald@dwt.com) leads Davis Wright Tremaine's Energy Practice Group. Jeffrey P. Gray (jeffgray@dwt.com) is a partner in the firm's Energy Practice Group.