Ronn Richard Comments to the Cuyahoga County Regional Energy Task Froce Feb. 8, 2007

Transcription

1 Ronn Richard Comments to the Cuyahoga County Regional Energy Task Froce Feb. 8, 2007 This is indeed a great day for the future of the Cleveland/Cuyahoga region. It s fitting that we re standing here 100 yards away from a spinning wind turbine (at the Great Lakes Science Center). Three-and-a-half years ago, when I came to Cleveland, I began having discussions with other community leaders about wind energy out on Lake Erie as a means of revitalizing our region s economy and improving our environment. It would also be a dramatic statement to local citizens and outsiders everywhere that our area is moving boldly into the 21 st century and reinventing itself to once again become a major economic and cultural force in the world in other words, using wind power to rebrand the city. The idea was initially dismissed by some as too radical as, incidentally, was the idea of putting just one wind turbine outside this building. But thankfully, the idea of wind on Lake Erie never really died. It picked up steam when our Leadership Cleveland class adopted it as one of their projects. In the meantime, energy prices have skyrocketed, climate change has become acknowledged as a real concern, and our area is finding it difficult to meet local air quality challenges. We can no longer deny or avoid the issue: We must address our energy situation. This will require significant innovation some of it radical innovation using so-called disruptive technologies.

2 Across the world and across the U.S., energy is now at the top of the agenda, and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. It s now accepted that an advanced energy industry will emerge it has to emerge and it will be huge. We at The Cleveland Foundation, along with many of our partners in the private, public and nonprofit sector, are actively engaged in trying to ensure that Cleveland/Cuyahoga captures a leading position in the advanced energy industry of the future. We are particularly optimistic about our area becoming a major center of research, manufacturing and deployment of next-generation wind technologies. The offshore demonstration project and research center that the County Task Force has envisioned would serve as the catalyst for the emergence of this center of excellence. We strongly support and applaud the task force s recommendation for the county to fund a feasibility study to confirm and definitively plan the implementation of the offshore demonstration project and research center. And The Cleveland Foundation will proudly partner with you in this effort. The Foundation also seconds the task force s recommendation to the State of Ohio to enact an advanced energy portfolio standard. Without such a policy, our area can never realize the vision of becoming an important player in advanced energy. Twenty-two other states have such a policy, and they are capturing the economic benefits the jobs associated with advanced energy. We are lagging and are moving too slowly; other states are pulling further ahead every day. It s not just so-called tree-hugging states like California and Massachusetts, either our industrial neighbors all around us, Pennsylvania and Michigan, are all making far more progress and achieving far more results in advanced energy than we are.

3 We can be just a customer of the future advanced energy industry, a dependent importer like we are now, or instead we can be a supplier to the advanced energy industry, an exporter to the world. It s our choice, and I think the choice is clear. We must stop dilly-dallying and start acting. I have great faith in the new Strickland Administration, and in Messrs. Horn and Husted in the State House. I m sure that they fully comprehend the stakes and the imperative to take bold action together. The PUCO must implement an advanced energy portfolio standard now within months, not a year, if we want to capture the economic benefits associated with the inevitable coming of the advanced energy industry. Speed must become a new core competency for the State of Ohio. In today s world, if you are behind the curve you are irrelevant and eventually dead! In the meantime, we here along the shores of Lake Erie will begin tackling the challenges associated with getting ourselves ready for a huge offshore wind industry of the future. The feasibility study will ensure that we can build and finance a wind project in Lake Erie and a research center to develop next-generation wind technologies both of which will position Greater Cleveland as the place to locate for research and manufacturing of wind turbines and components. Eventually, I see a future involving not just the one wind turbine outside this building but perhaps hundreds, even thousands, of turbines on Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes most of which would be beyond the horizon of the shore, generating thousands of megawatts of clean electricity. They would also be providing livelihoods for thousands and thousands of employees who manufacture, engineer, install and maintain these turbines both in Lake Erie and for deployment around the world.

4 This will not be easy to accomplish. It will take several years for the envisioned offshore wind project and research center to become reality. But you know it wasn t easy for John D. Rockefeller to start the modern gasoline industry, either. But he did it, and he did it here in Cleveland. Most of the rest of the world has shied away from offshore wind not because it s impossible, but only because it is harder than onshore wind, which is booming right now. A number of technical and financial hurdles for the offshore wind project and center will need to be overcome, but it is doable. We will need to tackle the challenges head on, but we know we can t do it alone: We will need lots of help from our friends in Columbus and Washington, and from corporate partners, as well. Yes, there s risk involved. However, if we don t take prudent risks, we will never be able to catch up to, much less leapfrog, the other regions that have to date moved more aggressively than we have on wind and other forms of advanced energy. Of course, the greatest risk we can take is to do nothing! The future of Cleveland/Cuyahoga is not riding on industries of yesterday, but on industries of tomorrow. The offshore wind industry is one of those industries. With bold action, now, we can assert clear leadership in that industry and hold that lead for decades to come. Yes, today is a great day for Cleveland/Cuyahoga, but it s just the first day of a whole new era. We are committing ourselves to obtaining and maintaining a major position in the multi-billion-dollar wind industry. The Cleveland Foundation looks forward to working with all of our local, regional, state and federal constituencies to fulfill this commitment.

5 With this commitment, we can put Cleveland/Cuyahoga onto a better trajectory for a long, long time to come. We can create jobs while reducing our region s air emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. More fundamentally, we can change the way we and others view our region. We at The Cleveland Foundation won t stop pushing on wind and advanced energy articulating new ideas that may be seen as radical but are increasingly mainstream until this region is once again what it was in the early 20 th century and deserves to be again: A major economic and cultural force on the world stage.