Des Moines Register
09-26-06
Iowa, U.S. must invest in renewable fuels.
REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
The September issue of Scientific American was devoted almost entirely to
energy. Well-known scientists wrote about various strategies for reducing
carbon-dioxide emissions to lessen global warming.
The article that especially caught our eye was by Daniel Kammen, distinguished
professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote about the
prospects for renewable energy, such as that derived from the sun, wind and
biomass. We've written a lot about that topic lately, too, mostly in the context of
wind and biomass having vast potential to reshape Iowa's economy.
It's nice when experts reinforce your views. Kammen noted that the technology
for producing renewable energy already exists and is proven. What's needed are
incremental advances to make the renewables competitive with fossil fuels. And
that requires research.
"Each of these renewable sources is now at or near a tipping point, the crucial
stage when investment and innovation, as well as market access, could enable
these attractive but generally marginal providers to become major contributors to
regional and global energy supplies," he wrote.
Unfortunately, he noted, investment in energy research is lagging. Private-sector
spending on research and development has shifted away from energy and
toward pharmaceuticals. Public funding of energy research has been cut by more
than half in recent years.
Kammen estimated that spending on energy R & D needs to increase five- or
tenfold if the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is going to be
stabilized.
We've argued for more R & D spending on energy at the state level, too. Global
warming aside, if Iowa is going to become a center of renewable-energy knowhow, and reap the economic benefits that go with it, this state must spend what it
takes to make our universities acknowledged leaders in energy research.
That's the light in which remarks last week by state Economic Development
Director Michael Blouin should be viewed. Blouin said the state should go after a
$500 million biosciences research institute being planned by the giant energy
company BP, as well as other research grants.
Of course it should. It would be crazy not to.
Getting research grants and landing projects like the BP institute usually will
require matching funds from the state. Iowa State University President
Gregory Geoffroy estimated it would take $58 million to build a laboratory to
house the BP institute.
The state shouldn't shrink from making such investments, because the longrange payoff for Iowa's economy would be incalculable.
In fact, if BP chooses another state for its institute, Iowa should press ahead and
establish a similar center on its own. Becoming a national or even a world center
of renewable-energy knowledge is a once-in-a-century opportunity that Iowa
must not be too slow to recognize.