Barack Obama's Energy Plan gives us the impression that all we have to do is throw enough money at this problem and it will be solved. Don't be so naive though. Many of the proposals will take years to complete, but some can be realized easily. We tell you what makes sense and what we think should be the top four priorities. Don't think your off the hook Senator McCain, we also take a hard look at the McCain Energy Plan.

Energy is a tricky issue intertwined with the environment and our behavior. Senator Obama's plan tries to appeal to our desire for a cleaner environment and a more secure energy future. If the economy was better, we might be more favorable to it, but home owners are short of cash and patience. The real challenge will be to figure out what to do first. You'll get to game this below.

Despite being well written, I have to say that Senator Obama's plan comes up short just like Senator McCain's Energy Plan, but for different reasons. Remember though that when it comes to energy, we're in this mess because of our behavior and other factors that neither candidate discusses in their energy plans. They're like a group of "elephants in the room." 

Detailed Comments on Obama's Energy Plan
I'm going to list the elements of Senator Obama's Energy Plan and comment on the ones that I'm knowledgeable on.  You can do the same also. Feel free to disagree, or add detail by commenting below.

1) Provide short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump
Sorry Senator, we couldn't wait for you to get elected, so we took matters into our own hands. By changing our behavior (we did 10 things), we actually helped to reduce the demand for gasoline and oil and drove the prices down. It was very empowering to see those prices fall and send a message to the oil exporting countries. We hope you or the next President will empower us even more. Here are some additional suggestions on reducing demand on gasoline and oil:

• Why not require most federal government agencies to work four days a week and expand their existing Flexible Work Schedules to get more federal employees to work from home. With today's technology, there's little reason to come to the office for many workers to do their jobs.
• Increase the payment for federal public transportation subsidies and ask the private sector to do the same for its workers. Encourage them with an income tax credit. This would empower people to continue to conserve energy and reduce gasoline prices even further.

2) Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future
Don't throw money at the problem and think that it's going to be solved. The Bush Administration is already trying to do this with $38 billion in energy loan guarantees. They are trying to encourage people to commercialize promising energy technologies that will reduce our dependence on oil and reduce global warming.

Take some of that $150 billion and create some loan guarantees and energy grants for citizens. We'll take that money and install existing solar and wind energy technology on the roof's of our homes, condominiums, apartments, factories and commercial buildings. This is not rocket science and has been done but not on a grand scale.

Also since the Federal Government is the largest energy consumer, start doing your share by installing solar and wind on every building owned and leased by the Federal government worldwide, including the Defense Department. Your off to a good start already. The US Department of Energy recently installed the largest solar panel array on its headquarters building in Washington DC. Make sure you allocate money in agency budgets to do this or else it will never get done.

3) Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined
Great goal, but how are you going to do that unless you are planning on giving people some tax credits to buy hybrid, fuel cell, plug-ins or electric cars.

This is money well spent and should include the owners of fleet vehicles.There's no reason why the Federal government's fleet of vehicles can't all be hybrids or flexible fuel vehicles. Companies like utilities and delivery services like FedEx's and UPS' can do the same. Encourage them with tax incentives. This is really a multi-purpose project that will reduce oil and improve air quality.

• If you really want to be bold, then look into working with Project Better Place to build a car and fueling infrastructure that gets us away from oil in the transportation sector entirely. Start small and with cities such as Washington DC and Los Angeles that are overwhelmed by cars and trucks. Do demo projects in these cities in cooperation with Project Better Place. Finance the undertaking by buying electric cars and building battery swapping stations for both the federal government and city/state government vehicles. See the article on Project Better Place that outlines this strategy. [Disclosure: we are not associated with Project Better Place at all, just like the idea]

4) Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America
Great idea. Consider the Pickens Energy Plan and funding U.S. auto makers who offer solar roofs on cars. Toyota is starting to offer solar roofs. With 1.1 billion cars and trucks worldwide today and twice that amount estimated in 2030, solar panels on cars make sense. Make the electric grid green also.

Don't forget to tell the 500 disparate owners of the high voltage electric transmission system in the U.S. that they have to buy any access power back. They'll make excuses, tell you you're crazy and do everything possible to thwart your efforts.

5) Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025
Love it, but you'll have very difficult time doing it. That's because renewables are constrained by the perceived or real shortage of high voltage power lines to get the power to where it is needed. Of course you already knew that from the DOE's recent Wind Energy Report and an article I wrote on wind energy on roofs. Also NIMBY and  disputes between the federal government and the States will plague efforts. You can get around the power line issue by building smaller solar and wind power project closer to where they are needed. Like on the roofs of our homes, buildings and factories.

• Extend those energy tax credits to enable all of us to install solar and wind projects on roofs. Larger companies are really getting interested in installing solar panels on their stores' roofs, so please encourage them.
• If you are serious, you'll think about a national grid owned by the Federal Government that will allow renewable energy to blossom. This may be one instance where a "build it and they will come policy" on transmission may make some sense. 
• You'll have to tackle head on the politics between the Federal and State governments. This truly analogous to the "tail wagging the dog." When the US Congress passes energy laws, we can't have every State second guessing the law and the agencies that implement the statutes. This one of the reasons that many energy projects never get built.  California comes to mind.
• Use the White House and the National Governor's Association to form regional groups of States to solve regional electricity and natural gas problems. Fund it and make federal mediators available to resolve disputes and avoid long drawn out litigation. This would go a long way to settle disputes like the one between Arizona and California and the federal government over a proposed high voltage power line right now.
• Send a message to every federal environmental agency that they must balance environmental protection with sustainable energy development. Require them to use the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act to resolve disputes early and avoid costly litigation and delay.

6) Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
This will definitely help. Do it quickly because most coal-fired power plant investments are folding, because of a lack of it. Also start looking at the high prices that railroads charge to transport coal. In some cases it is greater than 50 percent of the total cost.

7) Swap out Light Crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and put back heavy crude
Not impressed with this at all. Do we have refineries today to process that heavy crude oil that we put back in the SPR? If not, what good will it do.

8) Prioritize the construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline
Come on now. If this pipeline was not a priority with the Bush Administration then nothing was. Fact is that you can't do much aside from providing more incentives and jaw boning the companies. Also remember, part of he pipeline has to go through Canada, so you might want to talk to them too.

Besides, there has been some progress on the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline. ConocoPhillips and British Petroleum have formed the Denali group and are proposing a project that federal regulators are reviewing. In the meantime, Governor Sarah Palin and the Alaksa legislature favor TransCanada to build the pipeline. This is a nice example of cooperation and probable  litigation between the States and federal government. Whoever is elected President will have to resolve this or at least try.

9) Fliping Incentives to Energy Utilities
This is my favorite part of the energy plan, really. Do this by requiring electric utilities to provide smart meters aka advanced meters to all their residential and small business customers. The smart meters coupled to demand response programs will tell customers the price of electricity in real time and pay them to reduce consumption at critical times.

The real obstacle here may not be the energy companies, but the State Public Utility Commissions who seem to have no faith in residential consumers. State Commissions in California, Texas, New York, and Maryland are strong supporters of smart meters and demand response programs. Seek their advice.

Show State Commissions that you do have faith in us by siphoning part of that $150 billion you mentioned to pay for those smart meters and to establish demand response programs in every electric utility. You'll reduce electricity consumption, give us some control over our bills and reduce natural gas consumption, a favorite fuel to produce electricity.

What would we do first?

• We would put smart meters and demand response programs in place to give every electricity consumer direct control over what they are willing to pay for electricity. Then educate them along the lines of the Anti-Smoking ads except make it cool to smart to save electricity.
• Give consumers energy loans and grants to encourage them to install energy efficient technology and solar and wind energy on the roofs of their homes (single and multi-family, businesses).
• Build high voltage power lines to move solar and wind energy in remote areas to areas that use a lot of power.
• Talk to Canada and see if you could somehow expedite the construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline.
• Reduce the demand for gasoline and oil via transportation subsidies and establishing a 4 day work week for federal agencies and encouraging work at home programs.
• Build an industry that replaces the gasoline driven car with electric vehicles using the federal government as a test pilot.

Gaming the Energy Plan
Trying to develop and implement an energy plan ultimately comes down to finding the right mix of energy technologies to achieve the right prices and environmental quality. To see what we mean, you get to play being an Electricity or Environmental Czar (depending on your point of view) using an electricity calculator for the United Kingdom that we found on BBC Online.

See our article Senator McCain's Energy Plan.

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