New Energy Policy

Even before President Barack Obama introduced a goal of deriving80 percent of the nation's energy from clean energy sources by 2035,the new Republican majority in the House had begun efforts to cutsuch funding.

House Republicans They want to alter the Clean Air Act so itcannot be used as the basis for regulating greenhouse gases. Andthey have vowed to block funding to enforce EPA regulations.

While the new majority is focused on blocking a carbon cap-and-trade policy, they miss this point:

Clean energy is America's next frontier. It not only will enablethe United States to reduce its reliance on foreign oil, but willallow the United States to assume a leadership role in creating andexporting clean energy technology to the rest of the world.

Obama has a chance to highlight the advantages of clean energytechnology during Thursday's scheduled visit to Penn State. InSeptember 2010, Penn State secured a $159 million grant - thelargest grant in the university's history - to develop energy-efficient buildings that can be produced for the mass market.Research will take place at the Energy Innovation Hub to be built atthe Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Although so-called "smart buildings" have been built in the past,the goal is to develop the kind of technology that will pay foritself within five years and reduce energy costs by at least 50percent.

Penn State already oversees research at three labs at the NavyYard site. But the grants - $129 million from the federal governmentand $30 million from the state to build the facilities - will enableresearchers from Penn State, Princeton, Drexel, Penn, University ofPittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers and Virginia Tech to combineresearch and knowledge.

Ending subsidies to oil companies, as the president suggested inhis State of the Union address, would free up billions of dollarsfor research and development in clean energies. Federal investmentin research helped create the Internet, and supporters argue asimilar investment could produce similar results in clean energy.

That investment, in turn, will create new jobs in manufacturingand installation and further research and development.

The president's energy plan also includes nuclear power andnatural gas and "clean coal," although the technology for clean coalis not yet available.

If the stated goal seems too lofty, consider this: The EuropeanUnion set a clean energy goal of 20 percent by 2020. At the end of2010, three nations - Germany, Sweden and Hungary - had met interingoals and Poland, Lithuania and Portugal were closing in on thosegoals.

Investing in clean energy will increase jobs while reducing costsand pollution. Those are benchmarks worth pursuing. They also arethe building blocks of a comprehensive energy policy.