Cantwell optimistic for green energy jobs

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said she sees no end yet to the ongoing economic turmoil, but she expects the $787 billion federal economic-stimulus package to help create jobs in Washington, especially in the green-energy fields.

"I look at it as a big, big, big opportunity. … Energy is a $6 trillion market. By comparison, the Internet was $1 trillion," Cantwell said in an interview with The Olympian's editorial board Wednesday afternoon. "Energy is the mother of all markets. And this transformation to a digital-distributed energy network is a huge opportunity."

Cantwell said Washington has a skilled work force, existing wind and solar-energy enterprises, and chipmakers, plus "brainpower" with other businesses that could give the state a leg up. She said she has succeeded in getting energy-production tax credits for solar and wind power providers.

The White House has estimated the stimulus spending of $6.7 billion or more in Washington will sustain or create 75,000 jobs. Cantwell was unable to say how many of those might be in the energy field but said she thinks growth in that sector would help the economy.

The second-term Democrat also said she wished she could have done more for the energy sector in the stimulus package passed by Congress two months ago.

The $43 billion energy allotment did include tax credits for buyers of plug-in vehicles and money for weatherization.
 
The federal Bonneville Power Administration also was given a $3 billion credit authorization to make improvements to its power-distribution system. Bonneville's efforts could usher in the "smart grid" power-distribution system of the future that lets consumers match their use of appliances or recharging of electric cars to the time of day when power is cheapest, Cantwell said.

Smart-grids could help lower power consumption by 30 percent — making it conservation a major alternative to new coal-fired electricity plants, Cantwell said.
 
The state's junior senator has been carving out a niche in energy over the past eight years, having worked in the post-Enron era to protect local utilities against fraudulent power contracts that were a product of the manipulated power markets of the early decade.

She said the pace in Washington, D.C., this year has been "very busy" with a new president and as a result of the monumental change in the economy that has occurred since October. But the president set priorities in education, health care and energy that the public support, Cantwell said.

Here are a few other things she mentioned in a wide-ranging discussion:

• She had wanted to put in more tax credits for U.S. manufacturers of hybrid or electric plug-in vehicles, but there was too little time to get around the problem of targeting the aid to U.S. manufacturers, which have not been showing a profit.
• She has concerns about the $1.7 trillion that Congress has authorized since October for the stimulus package and for the Troubled Assets Relief Program aimed at troubled banks' "toxic" assets. But she said she opposed TARP and is one of about 10 senators who plan to fight for tighter regulation of financial markets to ensure there is better control of the complex products called derivatives and credit-default swaps, which were tied to last year's financial-system meltdown.
• She is skeptical of the federal plan to buy "toxic" assets tied to the mortgage industry will actually work. "We should have had a different approach on how to stabilize this situation," she said.
• The Ponzi schemes of Bernard Madoff helped efforts to reform the financial system. "I think Madoff has turned it around for a lot of people; I think Madoff made it clear there are schemes that can be perpetrated."
• Cantwell hopes to see progress this year on health-care reform and says she is seeing "probably the most momentum we've head in the last 10 years" to try to expand health care access. Cantwell said she supports bills sponsored by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and co-sponsored by Washington Rep. Brian Baird to create a larger market for insurance, driving down costs by putting everyone into the system.
• A sales-tax deduction for non-income-tax states such as Washington is on track again. But it is a temporary deduction once again and won't be resolved until the budget is reconciled at the end of the year. Cantwell said she is working to make the deduction permanent.
• She does not have a sense when the economic bottom might arrive. "I have a lot of concerns about the lack of predictability in the (financial stabilization) policy we have adopted since October," she said. "I don't think we've given the business community a sense that this is exactly how this is going to work, and here is where the money is going to go and here is the stability to attract the capital back into the game. I think a lot of people have sat on the sidelines. They haven't understood how this is all going to play out."
• The public is frustrated by TARP and its effect on frozen credit markets. "They are definitely very frustrated with what transpired on Wall Street," she said of business owners she has talked to. "They don't see it rolling down to the businesses in their communities."

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published April 09, 2009