January 18, 2007

PG&E’s Darbee Provides ‘Blueprint’ to Head Off Dangers of Global Warming

Speaking today at the National Press Club, Peter Darbee, Chairman, CEO and President of PG&E Corporation urged federal policy makers to take a series of actions aimed at accelerating the nation’s efforts to advance clean energy solutions and address global warming.

“Within the span of a generation, we need to significantly transform the ways we provide for our energy needs,” said Darbee. “If we rise to the challenge, we can head off the dangers of global warming. We can help secure America’s long-term economic prosperity. We can reduce our dependence on unstable parts of the world. And we can even instill in our nation a new sense of global leadership.”

In particular, Darbee called on Washington to respond to this challenge by setting clear and achievable long-term national requirements for lowering global warming emissions across all sectors of the economy. Mandatory federal emissions targets would, he said, create the certainty and consistency that U.S. companies need to move forward with the strategic planning and investments that will be essential for progress on clean energy and climate change. Darbee advocated strongly in favor of establishing a broad-based, national cap and trade system to achieve the long-term requirements.

In part, Darbee’s blueprint calls for:

• Providing incentives for utilities to advocate for energy efficiency programs by encouraging decoupling of utility revenues from the amount of energy sold.
• Adopting national energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances.
• Setting a federal renewables target goal and timeline.
• Driving new efficiencies in natural gas fired generation.
• Funding large-scale clean coal development and demonstration projects.
• Evaluating the future role of nuclear power in the U.S. energy supply.
• Establishing reporting processes, protocols and standards to ensure that businesses in all sectors report and certify their greenhouse gas emissions.
• Providing financial incentives for individuals and fleet owners to invest in alternative fuel powered vehicles.

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