Part 4: Durango CLEAN meeting: James Woolsey

This is the third segment of Mr. Woolsey's live video presentation to the gathering at Fort Lewis College on Jan. 19, 2011.

A Clean Local Energy Accessible Now (CLEAN) program is a national, state or local program that
promotes the growth of a strong clean economy by reducing the time, risks, paperwork and other costs
involved in selling clean energy from under-used spaces in our communities, such as warehouse
rooftops and capped landfills.
CLEAN programs maximize job creation, create new revenue streams for property owners, provide
ratepayer savings, attract billions in private investment and accelerate transitions to clean energy.
CLEAN programs—also known as "feed-in tariff" programs—are the most successful clean energy
market creator in the world. The National Renewable Energy Lab found that this policy tool is
responsible for 45 percent of all wind energy and 75 percent of all solar photovoltaic capacity installed
before 2008.


Key Features of CLEAN Programs:

• Utilities must enter into CLEAN contracts -- standard contracts to purchase all energy from an
eligible renewable energy system at a fixed rate for an extended period of time (generally 20 years).

• Small and medium renewable energy systems (generally 20 megawatts capacity and smaller)
installed close to energy consumers can participate.

• CLEAN programs improve grid access by increasing transparency.

Economic Benefits:

• CLEAN programs bring jobs to communities where the energy is needed.

• CLEAN programs boost clean energy markets to a scale that attracts technology, manufacturing
and assembly businesses.

• Most clean, local energy policies in the US discourage landowners from selling more electricity to
the utility company than the property uses over the course of a year. These programs fail to
encourage installation of renewable energy systems on parking lots, agricultural land, landfills,
warehouse rooftops, or properties with tenants. CLEAN programs give community property owners
the opportunity to tap a new source of cash flow by selling all of the clean energy they can produce
to utilities.

Ratepayer Savings:

• Locking in reasonable energy rates is our best defense against rising fossil fuel costs. Wind power
is already less expensive than natural gas in many markets.
Renewable energy continues to
become less expensive as the cost of clean technology goes down. The cost to install solar
photovoltaics fell by more than 25% in 2009.

• To build more central power plants far from our communities, we'll need to spend billions of
ratepayer dollars to build new transmission lines to deliver the electricity. Sourcing energy from
distant locations also has less obvious costs. While electricity travels through these power lines, a
significant portion of the energy is lost.

Benefits Start NOW:
CLEAN programs spur the development of Wholesale Distributed Generation clean energy systems (20
megawatts-and-smaller projects interconnected to the distribution grid) that do not require major
environmental reviews or new transmission line build-outs. This means that CLEAN program benefits --
local jobs and cleaner air -- start right away.

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Nonprofits & Activism