A wealthy Texan businessman and advocate of renewable energy wants the new administration of Geoge W. Bush to adopt measures that will encourage growth of green energy.
WASHINGTON, DC, US, 2001-04-24 <SolarAccess.com> Twenty years of research have made solar energy equipment “available and ready today,” Sam Wiley told the Solar Energy Forum 2001 conference in Washington on Monday. He says public demand is high and the technology is available. The recent energy “debacle” in California was caused by politicians “who do not understand high school economics” because they discouraged the addition of generating capacity while encouraging consumption of electricity. The Episcopalian Church had been very active in encouraging its supporters to purchase green energy, but he says rising prices in that state have forced the religious group to return to “dirty electricity.” Texas will have the best restructured sector when it deregulates next year, explained Wiley, who founded Green Mountain Energy in Vermont before relocating last year to Texas. The new state law is encouraging the addition of renewables to the portfolio mix, he says. “America needs deregulatory heroes in the U.S. Congress” that will address the issue of climate change, and he called for a cohesive energy policy that includes renewables. After his speech, Wiley said he has made his opinions known to President George Bush, the former Governor of Texas. Wiley declined to give his opinion on Bush’s intention to reject the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
