Video: Tim Kaine Argues for Move from Dirtier to Cleaner Energy Sources, Ditching Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Check out the video, below, of Tim Kaine speaking in 2012 at a clean economy roundtable held at cleantech strategic marketing firm Tigercomm (based in Arlington). Kaine stressed the need to move from dirty to clean energy for environmental and other reasons. Four years later, it makes even more sense, given the plummeting cost of solar and wind power. Anyway, here’s a summary of Kaine’s main points, courtesy of Tigercomm’s blog, Scaling Green:

• It’s time for opponents of clean energy to stop acting like the reign of fossil fuels as our dominant energy source constitutes some sort of inviolable theology.
• Even for those who don’t “believe” in climate science, or who think clean energy is a science project, it’s still common sense to move ahead aggressively with energy efficiency and clean energy. Unless, of course, they want America assigned permanent international follower status on the technologies other counties want to lead.
• If we find out in 50 years that the climate science was wrong, we’re still ahead by getting off the dirty stuff. If the 98% of practicing climate scientists were right and we let clean energy pass us by, we’ll deeply regret it.
• Clean energy adoption is being slowed by an inherent, incumbent advantage that fossil fuels have and are using to block innovative new technologies.
• We don’t have a level playing field for clean energy because even the way we currently price electric power provides little incentive for energy efficiency and conservation.
• An important step is to “take all the incentives that we currently put on heavy carbon and move them to mid-carbon, low-carbon and no carbon [energy sources]…we don’t need to subsidize mature industries and we shouldn’t be subsidizing the Big 5 oil companies.”