By Eric Thumma, Director, DEP Bureau of Environmental Sustainability

The United States is standing at an historic crossroads between challenge and opportunity. The energy policy and strategies that we put in place to deal with these challenges can ensure a future of reliable, affordable and secure energy for the nation’s energy consumers.

Gov. Edward G. Rendell is making Pennsylvania an energy policy leader by instituting policies and programs designed to turn today’s energy challenges into opportunities for clean, affordable, home-grown energy.

Beginning with Governor Rendell’s launch of the Pennsylvania Energy Harvest program in his very first months in office, the Administration began to call for the enhanced use of Pennsylvania’s indigenous energy resources as the best way to ensure reliable, affordable and secure energy.

Since its inception in May 2003, the Pennsylvania Energy Harvest Grant Program has awarded $15.9 million and leveraged another $43.7 million in private funds, and created approximately 340 permanent jobs and over 1,000 temporary jobs. The grants provide the last increment of funding for clean and renewable energy projects to be built in the Commonwealth from sources such as biomass, wind, solar, small-scale hydroelectric, landfill methane, coal-bed methane and waste-coal.

Governor Rendell’s Growing Greener II initiative provides significant resources to build on the success of Energy Harvest, including up to $10 million annually for the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, which has up to $1 billion available to provide financing to help build clean power and fuel plants. In June, PEDA awarded its first $6.5 million to finance 16 clean energy projects that will create as many as 450 permanent and construction jobs, including 327 full-time jobs. Gov. Rendell revived the Authority in April, 2004.

A reformed Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant Program has over $20 million available to support alternative fuel infrastructure and vehicles, biofuels production and hybrid electric vehicles.

Last November, Gov. Rendell singed into law the historic Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (Act 213 of 2004), or AEPS, to promote our indigenous energy resources. This act, the first of its kind in the nation to recognize the value of resources that provide a net environmental benefit, provides strong incentives for renewable energy, waste coal and coal gasification. Act 213 will ensure that approximately 5,000 megawatts of new generation that comes on line over the next 15 years will be from resources indigenous to Pennsylvania, thereby reducing our demand for natural gas in the electricity sector while improving the quality of our environment.

The policy and financial programs put in place by Gov. Rendell have resulted in meaningful alternative energy projects on the ground in Pennsylvania. Gamesa, a major Spanish wind manufacturer, has located its North American headquarters in Philadelphia and will soon be opening blade and tower manufacturing facilities at two former industrial sites in Ebensburg and Fairless Hills, respectively -- creating over 1,000 jobs.

Last month, Governor Rendell took part in the opening of the first biodiesel injection refueling station on the East Coast. The station, located in Middletown, is a joint venture of Worley & Obetz, Petroleum Products Corp. and Independence Biofuels Inc.

This Spring, Waste Management and Processors, Inc. plans to break ground for the first coal to transportation fuels plant in the United States - made possible by an innovative contracting structure whereby the Commonwealth is leading a consortium of long-term purchasers of the plants no-sulfur diesel fuel output.

Today we are facing historically high-energy prices and we need to respond to that challenge. However, this challenge is also an opportunity, an opportunity to create an energy secure Pennsylvania that keeps its energy dollars in state and employs thousands of Pennsylvanians in producing the components and outputs of a clean, reliable, affordable and secure energy future.

Eric Thumma can be contact by sending email to: ethumma@state.pa.us .

12/2/2005