Clean energy summit lacks big names this year

The National Clean Energy Summit looks like it’s running a little low on wattage.

Tuesday will bring the third annual installment of the summit, a creation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. And when the curtain rises on the event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, it will show considerably less star power than 2009’s version, which featured former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, among others.

This year’s summit boasts an array of prominent policymakers and business leaders, to be sure, but no participants beyond Reid himself and natural-gas magnate T. Boone Pickens carry household names or hold Cabinet-level positions in the Obama administration. Attendees including venture capitalist John Doerr, former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee all serve in important positions, but you won’t see them collecting Oscars or appearing on the cover of the National Enquirer (wait — that could be a good thing).

Reid wouldn’t comment directly on why 2010’s roster of summit speakers lacks the environmental and political celebrities who graced 2009’s installment. But a Reid representative said the upcoming confab revolves more around gathering participants who can help the clean-fuel sector grow in a way that creates jobs and reduces the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and foreign oil.

“The fact that we have President Obama’s top economic adviser, the head of the United States Chamber of Commerce, T. Boone Pickens and major CEOs demonstrates a more important star power: the power to get it done,” said Reid spokesman Tom Brede. “That’s especially important right now as we work to diversify Nevada’s economy by reaching across the political aisle and working with the major financiers, businesses and labor leaders who are instrumental in maintaining the momentum we need to fuel the clean-energy industry in Nevada and across the nation.”

In keeping with that objective, the speaker and panel lists do indeed go heavy on groups and people who can affect or advance the clean-energy sector on a day-to-day basis, including the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, which crafts incentives to attract new companies to the state; Michael Yackira, the president and chief executive officer of local power utility NV Energy; executives with California utility Pacific Gas & Electric; and solar-energy developer SolarReserve.

The summit will also launch a parade of economic and fiscal studies. Consider the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an event organizer that will use the summit to release the results of a study evaluating states on policies that promote energy efficiency (Nevada’s set to earn high marks, the group’s researchers said Tuesday).

But some clean-energy watchers say other factors have forced changes in the summit’s guest list.

Start with the economy. Nevada in particular continues to suffer a deep recession, and the rest of the nation isn’t exactly enjoying a roaring recovery. That makes clean energy, with its higher costs and federal subsidies, politically unpopular these days, said Jack Spencer, a research fellow in nuclear energy policy for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

“People have learned more about the consequences of clean-energy solutions,” Spencer said. “The American public wants clean, affordable, abundant sources of energy, but we’ve been told we need wind, solar and other sources the government chooses for us. As we started to take on some of those policies, it became clear that clean energy was going to increase the cost of energy for everyday Americans, for the benefit of a few who are participating in politically correct activities. Clean energy is fine in theory, until you get to understanding what is involved.”

Thanks to that dose of reality, the “sheen” has worn off the whole green-energy push, Spencer said. Throw in a struggling economy and revelations earlier this year of questionable research tactics among some global-warming scientists, and people “are just sort of fed up with it,” Spencer added.

Geoffrey Lawrence, a fiscal-policy analyst with free-market advocacy group the Nevada Policy Research Institute, cited the recession as the biggest factor in 2010’s quieter lineup. Renewable energy typically costs more than power from fossil fuels, Lawrence said, so energy policies that promote alternative power essentially reduce consumers’ living standards.

“And living standards are already low enough, most people feel right now, so green energy is becoming less popular,” Lawrence said.

Neither Spencer nor Lawrence cover politics, but both agreed that green energy has become a tougher sell politically, and that could keep some high-profile politicians and policymakers away.

Supporters of the summit offered different takes.

Pete Dronkers, an advocate with Environment Nevada, said it’s possible some of clean energy’s most passionate supporters have grown disappointed with the slow pace of action on comprehensive federal legislation to promote renewables and curb greenhouse-gas emissions. Their focus could be turning to grass-roots action among communities and individuals, and away from powwows with high-powered officials.

Others said, like the Reid camp, that the lineup changes come mostly from a different emphasis at the 2010 event.

“This summit is about getting people in the room who are important industry players. We’re trying to continue to grow the clean-energy industry,” said Daniel Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy for the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “Any economic recovery is going to have to be driven by small businesses, which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce represents. Energy developer T. Boone Pickens, John Doerr, who’s one of the country’s more prominent venture capitalists — the people we have at this upcoming summit are the workhorses for clean energy.”

And while previous summits developed or promoted concepts that later became laws or policies, this year’s version should yield more ideas about how to encourage actual investments in clean-energy technologies, Weiss said.

It should also still serve one of its most important purposes, as a networking nirvana for the clean-energy set, said Dronkers, who got to meet up in 2009 with representatives of companies and agencies ranging from NV Energy to the Bureau of Land Management.

Regardless of who speaks, the summit provides an important reminder that Southern Nevada is truly a hub of the clean-energy movement, Dronkers added.

“This is not just an idea. This really puts us on the map as an epicenter of the clean-energy economy, and I don’t think it’s at a theoretical stage anymore,” Dronkers said. “I really think this is big-time here.”

The summit’s organizers said Thursday that they expect to surpass 2009’s attendance of 700.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at
jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.