Perfect time, place for clean energy summit

By Nicole Lucht

Friday, July 17, 2009 | 3 a.m.

What better place to host the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 than Las Vegas, a potential hot spot of green energy?

And it is especially timely as the focus will be the creation of renewable energy jobs at a time when May’s jobless rate in Las Vegas was 11.1 percent, the highest the valley has ever seen. Experts say clean energy can generate 1.7 million jobs nationwide.

The summit will be Aug. 10 at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion. About 300 people are expected.

The symposium will review the goals set last year and what steps need to be addressed.

It is hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and UNLV.

Industry leaders, scientists, policy experts, public officials and the public will meet for the daylong summit.

This is the second year for the summit, and as it did last year, it has signed big names to the speakers’ list, including former Vice President Al Gore, energy executive T. Boone Pickens, American Progress CEO John Podesta, White House Council on Environmental Quality Special Adviser Van Jones and Nevada AFL-CIO executive Danny Thompson. Other speakers are expected to be announced.

For more information, go to cleanenergysummit.org. Registration is $150.

Urban sustainability

UNLV will be hosting its third Renewable Energy Symposium, the university’s urban sustainability initiative Aug. 11 and 12 at the Stan Fulton Building.

This event will focus on renewable energy production in Nevada and the Southwest.

The university is promising speakers on topics ranging from policy issues and projects to research. The speakers have yet to be announced.

There is a registration fee of $25.

For more information, e-mail [email protected] or call 895-5883.

Petroleum leak cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted $1.2 million in economic recovery money to clean up petroleum leaks that are affecting Nevada’s ground water.

This money, distributed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is expected to create green jobs for Nevadans.

The money is part of $197 million appropriated to address shovel-ready sites across the country contaminated by leaking underground petroleum storage tanks.

The money is expected to be used for overseeing assessment and cleanup of the tanks or directly paying for assessment and cleanup of leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling or unable to finance, or cleanup is needed in a hurry.

“I’m pleased that the EPA has recognized the importance of maintaining a clean ground water supply for Nevadans,” Reid said in a statement. “We have a limited supply of ground water in Nevada, and I’ve been fighting to keep it clean since before I was elected to the Senate.”

More money in the pipeline

The Treasury and Energy departments announced another $3 billion in renewable energy funds. The money will be spent on the development of renewable energy projects across the country.

The intent of the program is to spur economic development, encourage clean energy and create new jobs.

The program will provide direct payments instead of tax credits, as it has in previous years, to support an estimated 5,000 biomass, solar, wind, and other types of renewable energy production facilities.

Although the Treasury isn’t yet accepting applications, it has posted a sample application, guidelines and terms and conditions on its Web site to give businesses time to fill out the paperwork.

For more information, go to treas.gov/recovery/1603.shtml.

And more jobs, too

The Energy Department announced Nevada is getting $14 million to weatherize more than 5,500 homes as part of the recovery act.

Weatherization helps lower energy costs, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is expected to create green jobs in the state.

The Nevada Housing Division will be expanding training to about 300 workers to complete the weatherization work in low-income households.

The state also intends for the training to provide a tiered or career ladder approach to give workers an opportunity for optional training toward an associate degree in renewable energy.

Nevada is one of 15 states to receive the money.

Nicole Lucht covers health care, workplace, energy and banking issues for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-8832 or at [email protected].