How are we going to pay for that?

When I was a kid, I would always pester my mom about buying Oreos, Cocoa Puffs, Cheetos and whatever other deliciously unhealthy products spoke to me from the grocery store shelves. And her response was always "how are we going to pay for that?" Seeing as the money in my pockets was being set aside for important things like Star Wars figures, I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

Now, while still setting aside some cash for Oreos (me) and Star Wars (my kids), my main focus these days is how the US pays for a transition to a low carbon 21st Century economy. Funny how priorities change over the course of 20 years, but I digress.

In my post from Friday I wrote about how the status quo is no longer an option. In his article, Browstein referenced a recent report issued by the American Energy Innovation Council. It's fairly brief as reports go. The key recommendations:

- create an idependent national Energy Strategy Board
- invest $16 billion per year in clean energy innovation
- Create Centers of Excellence with strong domain expertise
- Fund ARPA-E at $1 billion per year
- Establish and fund a New Energy Challenge Program to build large-scale pilot projects

It's an excellent report and obviously has the backing of some of America's biggest brains. But "how are we going to pay for that?" So much effort is being put into comprehensive strategies or various legislative proposals for clean energy, but so few Members of Congress are willing to accept the fact that in order to pay for these initiatives we need a price on carbon.

The House has come up with a mechanism to do so in the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act and the Senate has the American Power Act (APA). If Congress decides to bail on these proposals and go with energy only, there is no way it will find the money to pay for the significant changes we need to make. I hope Members don't just shrugg their shoulders and move on to the next cool toy.