Marketing: Clean energy ought to take a cue from coal

Recession hit America hard. The housing crisis, banking collapse and automotive industry meltdown led the charge.

Rising energy prices added to the pain.

Pundits and various economists have predicted recovery, but few of those who have lost their jobs, homes or self respect have seen it.

Despite the gloomy mood, even somebody who's been sucker punched by a layoff appreciates a little levity, especially in a TV commercial. The right advertising campaign in a down economy could position a concept for broad public acceptance. Many businesses got their start that way, starting a whole new idea. The list includes MTV, FedEx and Microsoft. And Apple launched its iPod in 2001 just a month after 9/11.

The visual power of coal

Americaspower.org, a pro-coal group in Alexandria, Va., produced a commercial running currently on network television that makes a strong connection. It speaks to the downtrodden and forgotten by flashing from images of a business man, professional woman, graduate, blue collar worker and a couple others. Each is shown sprawled on the canvas as the narrator says, "Our economy. Our work force. We've all taken some big hit."

Who can argue with that?

The narrator continues: "But this is America." The footage cuts between the workers all staggering up, looking determined and beating the count.

"Jobs in America. Together we will power the next big comeback."

The medium is the message

The crowd is initially silent, then with scattered cries of "Get up!" members of the audience stand and cheer as the workers prepare to fight.

"Clean coal. That's America's power."

Not exactly what climate-watching scientists say, but it's a great message. Coal. Good old hot-burning, full-of-energy coal just happened to get it right. The jury remains out, but the campaign registers significant chutzpah.

A lesson for clean energy

Clean energy ought to do something similar. Make it simple and to the point, following the format established by America's Power.

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a commercial of a person in a space suit wandered an empty radioactive city. The message was Cold War era danger. It still haunts me.

Imagery is powerful. Coal has deep pockets, and America's Power is unapologetic and aggressive in its push for the public eye. Right there on the site's home page, it says coal is green power.

They got it half right. Power, yes. Green? Not so much.

Coal extracts momentum

Coal's coming off a big legal win. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton issued a decision against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying it overstepped its authority regulating mining companies.

Essentially the EPA teamed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "to coordinate reviews of backlogged permit applications for waste disposal at Appalachia mountaintop mining operations that raise serious environmental concerns," wrote John Raby on huffingtonpost.com.

He quotes U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., as saying, "This is a significant step in our efforts to rein in the EPA."

Clean coal wins support

The coal industry wants to make sure it remains in the game. Coal has a lot going for it. The fuel is domestic and cheap and it fuels about half the nation's energy needs. Yet, questions about its clean future remain despite industry efforts to scrub emissions and contain CO2.

Clean coal has believers. The U.S. Department of Energy is kicking in $450 million from its Clean Coal Power Initiative to help build a 400 megawatt plant in Texas "that combines an integrated gasification combined-cycle system with urea production and carbon capture and storage technology," according to power-eng.com.

For at least the time being, there's room for multiple energy sources. But clean and renewable energy has to elevate its visibility. Government subsidies would help, but they may not last and could be used as leverage by opponents.

Getting a leg up

The argument against subsidizing clean energy by the fossil fuel lobby is somewhat disingenuous. For instance, coal has had them too, according to a recent study.

Coal has received tax breaks totalling $1.3 billion over the past decade from a capital gain treatment on royalties, says the study "What Would Jefferson Do?" by Nancy Pfund of San Francisco-based venture capital firm DBL Investors and Ben Healey.

The study underlines how energy doesn't develop in a vacuum. Clean energy is dropping in price. Combined with energy efficiency and smart grid technology, much of it is making economic sense.

And that's the message. The fight's not begun.

Green energy rules rhetoric, but will it stick?

Everybody's going green or says so.

Green light bulbs, CFL or LED, take up shelf space in the corner store, companies talk sustainability, even grandma buys the green brand of tissue paper.

This is all well and good, but it's substance that changes behavior on a grand scale. And perhaps that's happening. Here's an example of the little clues I keep seeing.

At the start of a briefing this week with U.S. Embassy officials in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought up green energy. It was expected somewhat as she was there to recognize an international institution set up to promote development of renewable energy.

But that the Secretary of State of the world's greatest power is focusing attention on alternative energy at all during this time of unrest and economic instability says a lot to the level of attention green has attained.

"I’m delighted that we’re here in this beautiful embassy compound for us to celebrate the greening of our Embassy and to recognize what a leader the UAE is in renewable energy," Clinton said Tuesday.

Can anybody imagine Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State under President Carter, doing that while on a trip to the Middle East back in the 1970s? He may as well have said he supports cold fusion. (Maybe he did, but I think not.)

Yet, Clinton's embrace of green activities isn't all that unusual anymore. The rhetoric appears just about everywhere, a stark contrast to just a few years ago when energy efficiency, renewables and sustainability circulated mainly in conversations by true believers. But this transformation raises questions, at least in my head.

Will renewables go beyond talk? Will solar and wind energy reach parity with that fueled by fossil fuels? Can going sustainable simply be considered simply another method of extracting power and achieving energy independence?

Check back in another year. At the rate this business is experiencing metamorphosis, we could be awash in electric cars and putting photovoltaics on every California rooftop. Then again, Massey Energy Co. may succeed in getting coal named as the U.S. No. 1 priority fuel.

I hope not. Statements like Clinton's and others encourage optimism for the former.

Just last month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, clean energy frequently dominated discussion. In fact, at least one high-placed comment singled out the San Joaquin Valley's green credentials, according to a post by Gabe Dillard of thebusinessjournal.com.

Dillard wrote that a Siemens executive said California is attracting green investment "and that Fresno, California is at the epicenter of this movement as a vocal proponent of clean energy and the high speed rail." Dillard pointed out that Siemens had some insight as it was the title sponsor of an Economic Development Corp. serving Fresno County's event in October focusing on high-speed rail.

The same day she made her comments at the embassy, Clinton commended the activities of the International Renewable Energy Agency, or IRENA, which was formed two years ago, has 149 member countries and has established its headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

"We must develop sustainable energy sources to address the main challenges of our planet," she said at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. "The status quo today is unsustainable."

IRENA has an ambitious charter. Its mission is to promote "the rapid development and deployment of renewable energy worldwide." Officials say that energy demand will skyrocket with continued development and a global population projected to reach 10 billion in 2050. With vast renewable energy resources largely untapped, they say, recognizing that huge potential will make a "significant contribution to the world’s growing demand for energy."

One can hope. We also would like to foster renewable energy growth here in the San Joaquin Valley, which is a veritable Petri dish for the development of clean energy with its access to biogas, biomass, solar and wind. At least that's what my co-worker Sandy Nax says, and he never lies.

Photo: Clinton with Interim Director General of IRENA Adnan Amin.

China and US team for clean energy

Enter the Dragon.

China will play an integral part of a wide-ranging clean energy collaboration involving U.S. government agencies, the private sector and institutions of higher learning. Project members will research clean coal and electric vehicle technologies.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the announcement Thursday. The project, dubbed the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, will receive a total of about $100 million over the next five years. Half comes from the Chinese and another $25 million from the U.S. government. The balance will matched other partners.

A consortium led by the University of Michigan will head up vehicle research, while another, led by West Virginia University, will focus on clean coal. Each would contribute a match to the federal contribution.

"The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center will help accelerate the development and deployment of clean vehicle and clean coal technologies here at home," Chu said in a statement. "This new partnership will also create new export opportunities for American companies, ensure the United States remains at the forefront of technology innovation and help to reduce global carbon pollution."

President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao formally announced the formation of the center during the president's trip to Beijing last November, DOE officials said. At the time, Secretary Chu joined Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang and Chinese National Energy Administrator Zhang Guobao to sign the protocol launching the center.

The United States and China are considered the world's top energy consumers, energy producers and greenhouse gas emitters. Author and environmental activist Bill McKibben said on David Letterman's Late Show this week that China's making a serious effort to get into clean energy.

"The Chinese are doing more than we are," McKibben said. He also said that if the percentage of Chinese families with cars reached U.S. rates, the world would be in trouble. As it stands, various sources peg automobile ownership by the Chinese in the single digits.
However, the Chinese are catching up -- fast. The blog Early Warning took data from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics and said if current trends continue, Chinese automobile ownership will surpass that of the United States by 2017.

Here are details of the two China-U.S. programs, according to DOE:

Clean coal: West Virginia University will lead a consortium that includes the University of Wyoming, University of Kentucky, Indiana University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, World Resources Institute, U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum, General Electric, Duke Energy, LP Amina, Babcock & Wilcox and American Electric Power. The consortium will develop and test new technologies for carbon capture and sequestration.

Clean vehicles: The University of Michigan will lead a consortium that includes Ohio State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Cummins, Fraunhofer, MAGNET, A123, American Electric Power, First Energy and the Transportation Research Center. The consortium will focus on electric vehicles.

The $25 million in U.S. government funding will be used to support work conducted by U.S. institutions and individuals only, DOE said. Chinese partners will be announced in the coming months by the Chinese government.

The announcement of another $12.5 million to a third winning consortium focused on building energy efficiency will be made this fall.

My use of Enter the Dragon is an overt reference to Bruce Lee's only U.S.-produced film and the only one that used his real voice in copies of his films released in this country. Lee left a mark on an entire generation and the industry, and it's possible China may do the same with clean energy.

There's always Return of the Dragon, which brought us Chuck Norris. Keeping this analogy, Norris would represent this country. And nobody messes with Chuck Norris.