Group calls for US renewables drive

An association of US business, environmental and energy interest groups is calling on the government to increase funding towards renewable power in 2005. The Sustainable Energy Coalition, in a letter to the US Senate’s Budget Committee, is requesting enough backing in the fiscal year 2005 budget to allow the renewables industry to develop beyond its existing levels, and double in size over the next five years.

The Committee is expected to come up with allocations and priorities that will influence the scale of the 2005 budget later this week.

The proposals outlined in the letter focus on the potential economic and social benefits of a larger US renewables industry, the key factors behind the Bush Administrations refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.

The letter states that "support for federal sustainable energy programs represents a sound investment that could, over time, actually contribute to the nation's economic recovery by creating new domestic businesses and jobs, reducing energy imports and prices, enhancing national, energy, and homeland security, improving the reliability of the nation's electric transmission grid, and curbing the costs of energy-related environmental impacts."