Hurdles For Green Energy

Biz Voice magazine sat down with Scott Edward Anderson, founder of Verde Strategy and The Green Skeptic, to get some of his opinions on the green movement.  Below is a summary of some of his key points.

The first thing to note is that there is going to be a long transition period involved in shifting from our current energy sources (coal, oil, gas) to renewable or green energies.  People are looking for home run solutions that will solve our problems quickly and easily.  We thought ethanol might be a home run opportunity and people started jumping on the “bandwagon”.  In the process we overlooked the economic impacts associated with changing the balance of the corn commodity, from pricing and subsidies, to land usage.  In depth scenario planning could have indicated such obstacles.

The fact is that R&D needs to bring  the cost of new energies down before the green energy movement can take off.  The energy market is too risky for most private capital investors, leaving the burden on governments to make the large investments.

Instead governments are helping build wind farms and solar fields, but most of the R&D is still privatized.  Green government projects are creating jobs for the unemployed, however the cost of creating a single job is enormous and the position is definite.  Stable “green jobs” won’t be a commonplace until the green movement requires lots of manufacturing jobs.  Even in countries where this has happened, most the new green jobs are filled by workers from coal, oil and gas companies, many of whom had been laid off as renewable energy takes market market share away form old energy sources.

Finally, despite recent criticisms of LEED, the certifications have been an effective push in the right direction and usually result in the creation of a fantastic green building.  But LEED is only really valuable during the planning and construction process.  Once tenants move into the LEED building, the continued sustainability of the facility is dependent on the management and operation of its users.  The advantages of even the greenest buildings can be countered by misuse.

Links:

Full interview/article:   http://www.bizvoicemagazine.com/archives/10julaug/BalancingAct.pdf

http://www.bizvoicemagazine.com/

http://www.thegreenskeptic.com/

Glee “Over the Rainbow” and the Oil Spill

Green Legal Matters Speakers Have All Grounds Covered

There will be no shortage of experts or experience at the Green Legal Matters Symposium starting October 13^th.  Somehow I get the feeling the featured speakers know what they’re talking about and you will never find a comparable collection of speakers at one event.

Steve Harmon is the Senior Director of Legal Services for Cisco.  As manager of Cisco’s Legal Technology Solutions and Global Export Trade (“GET”) teams, he major player in controlling the X’s and O’s as well as the 1’s and 0’s for the legal department. Steven continues to practice law for Cisco and has significant strategic business development experience, helping to forge Cisco’s relationship with Hewlett Packard.

Susan Dorn is General Counsel for the U.S. Green Building Council and the Green Building Certification Institute.  Dorn is also a managing partner at Dorn and Hanson specializing in non-profit law.  Her expertise and credentials are highly regarded nationally, often speaking at high profile events with the American Bar Association and other top organizations.

Paul Lippe is CEO and founder of Legal OnRamp, which seeks to improve legal quality and efficiency through collaboration, automation and process re-engineering.  While working at Synopsis he increased revenues from $63MM to $800MM in 7 years.  He was CEO of Stanford SKOLAR before it was sold to Wolters Kluwer and he is a frequent speaker at premier law schools and organizations across the country.  From 1987-1992 Lippe was also Chairman of the Colorado air Quality Control Commission.