Clean energy bonanza

Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 | 3 a.m.

Congress should pass a comprehensive clean energy bill to promote renewable resources, using as a guidepost a high-profile summit at UNLV last week.

Some of the nation’s leaders, including former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, joined Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and members of the Obama administration to trade ideas at the National Clean Energy Summit.

Thanks to Reid’s leadership, there is a good possibility that any energy bill that reaches President Barack Obama’s desk will include the senator’s pitch to build transmission lines to carry solar, wind and geothermal energy from faraway generating plants to urban centers.

As quoted by Alexandra Berzon in the Las Vegas Sun, a sister publication of In Business Las Vegas, Reid said: “I will not be satisfied with an energy bill unless it has a strong component that allows transmission.”

We would like the energy bill to include Clinton’s suggestion at the summit to make buildings more energy efficient, which he said would create much needed jobs.

Southern Nevada stands to benefit from both ideas. On the transmission side, greater support for power line construction will make it easier for renewable energy plants to deliver power to Las Vegas residents from remote locations.

Retrofitting existing buildings in the valley to make them more energy efficient would not only lower utility costs for businesses, but help put a sizable dent in the double-digit unemployment rate that Las Vegas is experiencing.

If these ideas come to fruition, it will be a credit to Reid, who put the summit together, and to UNLV for hosting the event.