National Clean Energy Summit Wrap-up

Whew! Today was the full day session of the first annual National Clean Energy Summit here in Las Vegas, and it was a long one. T. Boone Pickens opened the day at 9am, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrapped it up with remarks at 5pm.

I'll write more tomorrow and share some of the details of today's presentations, but here are some initial thoughts.

My sense is that transitioning from oil and other fossil fuels to new, renewable energy sources will be the challenge of this generation.

For the past century, we've had the luxury of investing our wealth in, well, luxuries. Why? Because energy has been cheap.

Now that peak oil has or is about to arrive, we'll have to instead invest in the research and development of clean energy alternatives and the electrical transmission and other infrastructure required to get energy from where it's available (the Southwest has abundant sunshine, the Midwest plenty of wind) to where it's needed (the coasts).

If we fail to do this, we'll be spending whatever is left of our wealth on true necessities... and the things that now seem like necessities will become tomorrow's luxuries.

AS FOR WHAT YOU CAN DO: my takeway from yesterday and today is that getting Congress to renew investment tax credits for solar and other renewables is critical to making progress. Every day when there's uncertainty in this industry increases the risks of climate change and reduces our flexibility in an unstable world.

More details from me tomorrow; here are stories from the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.