All of ELA’s work sources ideas on a diverse range of energy solutions and policy options and then evaluates them for national energy portfolio feasibility and desirability. We offer the facts and figures necessary to make informed decisions while identifying potential drawbacks to each energy source or policy approach. Government documents, universities, think tanks, other non-profits, and industry trade associations are used as research sources where proven credible. We do not duplicate the efforts of other organizations, many of which do top quality work on energy issues. Instead, we re-package data into easy to read and digestible formats, free from biases toward any given energy source or policy option, and make that information accessible to all sectors of our democracy through our strategic public education efforts.
Our work is centered around four programs: 1) energy brief email focused on members of the media and policymakers, 2) energy policy option modeling via our partnership with the Millennium Institute and our promotion of their T21 Model and simulations, 3) a fully scalable multimedia campaign, and, 4) the creation of unique solutions as the need arises – such as the Fuel Security Fund.
Email Brief
As part of our policymaker and media education outreach ELA is currently developing a regular, informational email campaign. These emails will contain several fact-filled sections:
- New facts or myths dispelled – a proactive approach to driving media coverage and new legislative ideas by presenting facts and figures that are not currently under media or policymaker scrutiny but should be. An example would be to point out the difficult logistics of erecting nuclear power facilities to create a better understanding of this energy source’s near-term potential.
- Energy in the news – reacts to timely media coverage and/or items up for legislation by providing the pros, cons, and facts behind the stories. An example would be to address the pros and cons of ethanol production as a recent hot item in the news – for instance pointing out the little noted fact that even if all kernels of corn grown on every acre of land were processed into ethanol only 10-12% of the nations transportation fuel needs would be met.
- Energy solutions – highlights the pros and cons, barriers to implementation, and other facts surrounding potential energy source solutions and energy policy options.
All facts and figures would be fully referenced and experts’ contact information provided where appropriate. The goal is to provide everything needed for a policymaker to easily dig deeper and a member of the media to write an accurate story with little additional effort.
T21 Energy Policy Modeling Project
In conjunction with the Millennium Institute, ELA is working to publicize and drive traffic to modeling software that provides insights into the economic, environmental, and societal impacts of chosen energy policy options. Created over a 2-year period, the software is currently only available in downloadable format and has yet to be properly publicized. While the Millennium Institute serves as the programmers and architects of the software, ELA will focus on publicizing the existence of the powerful tool via meetings with policymakers and the media as well as through our efforts to drive traffic to our website, where the T-21 Model is being platformed. The collaboration includes:
- Millennium Institute-run simulations for common energy policy options (e.g. an increase in CAFÉ standards or the federal gasoline excise tax) posted and marketed on the ELA website;
- When presented at meetings, ELA can offer to run custom simulations for media or policymakers;
- ELA and Millennium Institute will also be working together to create a web-based version of the software in order to increase its public accessibility and use.
Multimedia and Educational Campaign
The most broad program undertaken by ELA, the multimedia and educational campaign will be scaled according to available funding. Current initiatives include:
- Internet Campaign: The Internet educational campaign relies on generation of ELA website traffic and organizational membership via virally distributed content, MySpace and Facebook networking, Internet news media messages, search engine optimization and other Internet positioning strategies;
- Print Campaign: The print campaign cultivates non-paid public service announcements and educational Op-Ed or feature pieces in socially responsible print media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) at both a regional and national level;
- PR Campaign: A strategic PR campaign designed to provide frequent releases about ELA initiatives and newsworthy items in order to brand ELA, as well as press conferences to announce key educational pieces or in conjunction with events as appropriate;
- Op-ed Board Meetings: ELA staff is meeting with key national publication editorial boards as well as major Mountain West media outlets, with the goal of providing energy information and establishing ELA as a primary contact source;
- Office Visits: U.S. Congressional and Governors’ office visits for the eight state Mountain West region, expanded to strategic national targets as funding allows;
- Unpaid Television and Radio Campaign: ELA is conducting, through our own initiative or via invitation, unpaid appearances on national television and radio platforms;
In addition, ELA envisions a broader and far reaching campaign should resources allow. Initiatives include:
- 2008 Election Information Campaign: ELA will provide citizens and the media with key energy policy issue questions to ask political candidates, as well as available information on each candidate’s stance on energy policy issues (obtained via meetings from policymakers themselves as appropriate);
- Internet Campaign: Expansion of the internet campaign to include virally distributed video and audio (podcast) content produced by ELA;
- Paid Television and Radio Campaign: Paid television and radio campaigns will focus first on the Mountain West region, where a nexus of both traditional and renewable energy resources exists, and where key political leverage can be applied to the national energy discourse and decision-making process. Messages will not endorse political candidates nor specific legislation, and will be targeted for broad distribution via radio and television as funding allows.
ELA also is aggressively pursuing caused-based marketing relationships with energy industry and other corporate interests, where energy literacy messages are delivered by and via the support of energy companies and energy trade associations to the extent that their energy interests and objectives are in keeping with the ELA public education agenda.
All of the aforementioned programs and campaigns are designed to drive audience members to the ELA website, which provides visitors with a wealth of information about energy issues, the range of potential solutions available, and vehicles for action.
Creation of Solutions: The Fuel Security Fund
As ELA seeks to educate our democracy about energy source and policy issues, it is helpful to develop and publicize workable policy examples that embody potential solutions to citizens, media leaders and policymakers. One such policy example is the Fuel Security Fund (FSF). While it certainly could be adopted and implemented by policymakers, the FSF policy option is intended primarily to provide people with knowledge of a workable policy solution while educating them about some of the difficult decisions that must be made in order to resolve our global and national energy crisis.
The cornerstone problem addressed by the FSF policy option is the threat posed to the average working American’s livelihood by US addiction to excessive automobile gasoline consumption, much of it coming from foreign oil imports. Our excessive gasoline consumption has important and deep economic ramifications, but also national security and environmental implications.
The most significant action we can take to decrease oil use is conservation, and the largest impediment to conservation is the energy inefficiency of the US vehicle fleet. The FSF therefore seeks to provide incentives to convert the vehicle fleet into a fuel efficient one as quickly as possible.
In a nutshell, the FSF would be a government program, much like social security, that collects and redistributes funds to tax payers. Revenues could be generated by gasoline excise tax increases, gas guzzler taxes, carbon taxes, imported oil taxes, or even private donations. Funds would be distributed to individuals who purchase US-manufactured vehicles that conform to fuel efficiency standards, with preference given to low-middle income citizens. Vehicles that run in part or whole on fuel sources that are not petroleum-derived would also be eligible, as long as the petroleum portion of their use meets efficiency standards. If a tax on gas consumption were levied at $1.00 per gallon, for example, the tax proceeds would be directed at a fund that would build “automobile equity,” which could be used toward the purchase of a new, fuel-efficient, US-manufactured automobile within five to ten years, which would contribute to a much faster conversion of the U.S. automobile fleet to significantly greater fuel-efficiency.
The FSF serves as an excellent educative example because it focuses on conservation and highlights the difficult choices (i.e. behavioral changes, new fuel innovation, and perhaps taxes) that will have to be made to decrease oil use. However, it also provides incentives to US automobile manufacturing facilities to produce efficient vehicles, incentives for the purchase of those vehicles by consumers in the form of cash, and incentives for reduced fuel consumption. And when consumption declines, so will greenhouse gas emissions. Also in decline would be foreign and military policy driven by the need to secure foreign oil interests.
