US-Ukraine Energy Efficiency Cooperation project

UKRAINIAN-AMERICAN

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION

6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912; 301-270-6477 x.11

 

COMMENTS REQUESTED ON PROJECT

TO PROMOTE U.S.-UKRAINE COOPERATION

ON IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY

AND DEVELOPING RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

 

 

June 12, 2014

 

Dear Friend of Ukraine:

 

The Ukrainian-American Environmental Association (UAEA) - an all-volunteer, non-profit organization founded in 2004 and chartered in Washington DC - is exploring options for developing a long-term project to identify and promote opportunities for U.S. assistance to, and cooperation with, Ukraine in the areas of improving energy efficiency and developing renewable energy resources.

 

Accordingly, we are writing to you for your comments and suggestions as we develop this project idea.

 

As you probably know, Ukraine is heavily dependent on expensive and overly-priced natural gas imported from the Russian Federation as well as significant shares of its petroleum and nuclear fuel. This poses a significant and ongoing threat to Ukraine's national security and economic stability in addition to the environmental and health impacts of reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power.

 

As you may also know, improvements in energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) offer Ukraine the opportunity to greatly reduce - if not completely eliminate - its reliance on energy imports from the Russian Federation.

 

As has been noted by many analysts, Ukraine has one of the world's most energy-inefficient economies. If Ukraine were to aggressively implement programs to improve its energy efficiency and to have an economy that is no more energy-intensive than just the world average, that alone would be sufficient to end Ukraine's imports of natural gas, and possibly oil and nuclear fuel as well. Ukraine could cut its current energy consumption in half while still growing its economy and improving the standard of living for its citizens.

 

Further, as the second-largest country in Europe (next to only the Russian Federation), Ukraine is blessed with a mix of mostly untapped renewable energy resources. In fact, it could be argued that the mix of biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind resources available in Ukraine is large enough to enable Ukraine to eventually become the largest renewable-energy economy in Europe. Ukraine has the potential to meet at least 20% of its energy needs within the next two decades from renewable energy sources. Yet, Ukraine is now producing energy from renewable resources that is only a fraction of that being developed in European Union countries.

 

Therefore, UAEA is now examining the opportunities for the U.S. government (as well as the business and non-profit sectors) to work cooperatively with Ukraine to rapidly improve its energy efficiency as well as to tap its renewable energy resources.

 

Moreover, now appears to be a particularly opportune time to take action.

 

The events of the past eight months have focused the attention of U.S. policy makers on Ukraine in a way not seen since at least the 2004 Orange Revolution. Both the White House and the U.S. Congress seem more than willing to lend significant American support to Ukraine -- and that is a sentiment shared by members of both the Democratic and Republican parties (a very rare situation).

 

However, that support will be tempered by the political reality that U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine will be limited by the federal budget.

 

Therefore, the challenge is to identify and promote those U.S.-supported programs that would be most effective at the lowest cost.  That is the task that UAEA hopes to focus on and for which we are seeking your comments.

 

Specifically, we are seeking guidance in two areas.

 

First, we hope to begin by identifying all the U.S. programs now in place or now under development to assist Ukraine with energy efficiency and renewable energy development. These could include programs supported by such agencies as U.S. AID, the U.S. Departments of Energy, Commerce, Agriculture, State, and Defense, the Export-Import Bank, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, U.S. Peace Corps, and Fulbright and other scholar-exchange programs. It could also include international institutions such as the World Bank in which the U.S. plays a prominent role.

 

Therefore, if you know of specific programs underway or being planned by any of these or similar U.S. governmental institutions, we would welcome the information. Contacts for specific individuals working on or directing these programs would be particularly helpful.

 

Second, we want to identify program ideas that would be very effective and relatively low-cost and easy-to-implement but which are not yet included in the mix of U.S. governmental initiatives -- or which could and should be expanded because they are particularly successful. That is, we want to compile a list of suggestions that we could share with policy makers in the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy development in Ukraine.

 

Broadly, such ideas could include the following:

 

**providing technical assistance and training to Ukrainian industrial and commercial business managers for improving energy efficiency;

**expanding student and professional exchange programs with a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy development;

**developing consumer and student energy education programs, including social media, internet, print and broadcast media;

**facilitating support for U.S. and Ukrainian sustainable energy businesses seeking to cooperate;

**re-establishing U.S. Peace Corps in Ukraine with a energy-assistance and education component;

**transferring the programs developed by the U.S. EPA to encourage businesses and local governments to voluntarily improve their energy efficiency and utilize renewable energy resources;    

**working with municipal, oblast, and national energy policy makers, including those in the Rada, to design legislation and regulations (e.g., building codes, appliance efficiency standards) based on successful U.S. and EU experiences;

**developing and sharing data to identify the most economically viable options for tapping Ukraine's renewable energy resources and "low-hanging" energy-efficiency opportunities.

 

Obviously, this list could be greatly expanded and be made far more specific. To do that, we are seeking your input.

 

Therefore, we would welcome your ideas and suggestions. The more specific you can be, the better. Further, if you have individual contacts in the U.S. government with whom we should be communicating, that would be very helpful as well.

 

Finally, please let us know if you would like us to keep you on a specific mailing list for this project. We will keep those interested updated with periodic reports and an on-going request for comments and additional ideas.

 

We look forward to hearing from you ... and thank you.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Ken Bossong, co-director

Ukrainian-American Environmental Association