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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by J. Brady Anderson,
Energy Efficiency Forum
USAID Administrator
June 14, 2000
First, I would like to thank my hosts James Keyes, Brian J. Stark, John Derrick and Barry Worthington.
I'm very pleased to be here. I truly recognize the importance of this audience, and the discussions that you will have here today, and I'm very pleased that you see the Agency for International Development as a critical component of those discussions.
While I'm relatively new to my job at USAID, one issue that is not new to me is the role of energy in development.
We take dependable and affordable energy for granted in this country, but there are very few parts of our lives that having energy did not change for the better during the last century.
So much so, in fact, that for us, it's impossible to imagine what our lives would be like in the 21st Century if we didn't have safe and sustainable energy.
Unfortunately, for some two billion people with whom we share this planet and the future, a life without electricity is not difficult to imagine - they live that life every day. And that is a problem that is in America's national interest to address.
Dependable and affordable energy is one of the fundamental keys to sustainable development. No country has or ever will be able to develop beyond subsistence economy if its people do not have access to safe and reliable energy.
For example, in the country of Georgia, electricity shortages and blackouts are common-in part because customers, accustomed to free electricity under the Soviet system, are now often unwilling to pay their bills.
USAID found one solution to this problem was to move electric meters from inside apartments to outside lock boxes, calibrate meters to improve accuracy, improve the meter reading, billing and collections process, and cut off customers when they didn't pay their bills.
This simple project has had far-reaching implications in the city of Rustavi, where USAID first implemented it: not only are over 95 percent of customers paying their bills on time, but corruption has been eliminated by separating the meter reading and collections functions of the power company.
Just as important, because they are now paying for it, customers have learned to use their electricity more efficiently-which has allowed the power company to extend service to more households in Rustavi.
As the example of Georgia shows us, in so many ways, energy determines the level of a society's productivity and quality of life. In more impoverished parts of our world, energy
- frees millions of men and women from the daily task of collecting fuel and water.
- extends the length of the workday and the school day.
- opens windows to new and different worlds through radio, television, and the internet.
- builds bridges between worlds as well, with the telephone and e-mail.
And, by doing these and other things, it fuels not only our economies, but our dreams.
I've seen this first hand in East Africa, and I can tell you - and I choose my words carefully here - energy makes all the difference in the world.
We have to think not just in terms of abundant energy, however, but in terms of energy that is safe and efficient, as well. In too many places, we have fueled economic growth in ways that have added to health risks for our children, because of the pollution associated with some forms of energy production.
Since our task at USAID is to promote sound and lasting economic and social development, we have to address the challenge of helping countries meet growing needs for energy in ways that safeguard the environment.
Many of you in this room are critically important partners in that endeavor. We have choices that no generation before us has realistically had. And we have experience that shows what can happen if we don't exercise that choice. Perhaps most important, we have the power of the market, and the necessary partnerships with the private sector, like the one with United States Energy Association, to make good things happen.
Just this spring, I traveled with the President to India, and we had the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal. We saw that pollution has managed to do what 350 years of natural disasters, invasions and wars had failed to do - tarnish the marble of that magnificent building.
This kind of environmental degradation is not unique to India and the Taj. We see it in most parts of the developing world, just as we saw it in Pittsburgh in the last half of the last century.
Fortunately, we now have real choices, just as Pittsburgh did.
There is a mustard husk briquette found in the Indian state of Rajasthan, a place where they produce over 3.5 million tons of mustard annually. Normally this agro-waste would be used to feed cattle. However, because of the bitter taste cattle would not eat it, so it was simply left to be burnt in the fields.
The state of Rajasthan is in the process of transforming mustard husk into energy.
- Briquette is cheaper than coal;
- Low ash content of 2-3% as compared to 30-40% in coal normally available in India;
- No gas pollution, as it does not emit any sulfur or phosphorus fumes, eliminating the need for expensive pollution control measures;
- Provides a facility for utilizing a renewable source of fuel more efficiently, thereby saving the country scarce resources spent in importing the fuel; and
- Saving the country's most scarce natural resource -- forests.
On the same trip to India, I saw the success of the National Thermal Power Corporation, the entity that generates one-fourth of India's power. With help from USAID, and in partnership with some of you here today, NTPC has begun to invest in energy efficiency, and thus, invest more wisely in the future of India.
These investments have already reduced pollution, including two million tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
We know that the world's energy market over the next 20 years will be $4 to $5 trillion. At USAID, we will do all we can, through training, regulatory reform, emphasizing privatization, and promoting the transfer of clean technology, to create opportunity for American companies.
President Clinton's International Clean Energy Initiative is targeted at precisely that market, in a way that we believe will be good for developing countries, and good for American business. By funding that Initiative, Congress can make a very wise investment that is both good business and the right thing to do. The International Clean Energy Initiative is a public-private partnership that will increase people's access to energy for economic development, while opening up markets for U.S. technologies. The President's Initiative is an important example of how social and economic development, environmental protection, and a growing global economy are all mutually supportive.
Before I go, let me say one more thing:
To continue our work in promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy, and in promoting democracy, and children's health and the other critical challenges we face, USAID need resources.
This summer Congress will vote on the International Affairs account, which includes funding for USAID. I think you've heard the numbers…in a time of unprecedented prosperity and economic growth, America is dead last among developed countries in the proportion of our wealth that we devote to overseas stability and development.
If we want to continue to help developing countries become more energy efficient , if we want to preserve the world's environment, and if we want to help American businesses access new energy markets, we have a shared responsibility for educating Americans about the value of foreign assistance.
For it is in the interest of every American to live in a world of clean and abundant energy.
Thank you.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 12, 2001 |
