When I was a kid I loved the Batman television show. It was the one with Adam West as Batman and Cesar Romero as The Joker. They were such simple shows. Batman was good. The Joker was bad. Alfred was boring. And they almost always solved the problem, which was always caused by the bad guys, at the end of an episode. So what does this have to do with clean energy?

At some point as I grew up I came to realize that some problems could not be defined so simply. Problems were rarely about a bad person causing harm and a good person saving the day. I found that the most difficult problems are far more complex than that. They require not one side versus another but a variety of sides with varying interests and intentions. Everyone needs to pool their resources and give a little in order for things to work out.

This is how I feel about the many passionate debates around clean energy. Getting to a clean energy future requires hard work from all stakeholders. It can’t be about us vs. them. It needs to be about us working together. Alas, some of our leaders don’t see it that way.

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would extend the Renewable Energy Tax Credit. This is a credit currently in effect but set to expire at the end of 2008. The credit allows owners of clean energy projects to take credit against their taxes based on the amount of energy actually generated by the projects. I believe the credit stands at $.19 per kilowatt hour. It’s a nice payday for profitable clean energy producers and a needed incentive at this point in the game. This incentive, for better or for worse, spurs investment in wind, solar and other renewable technologies.

The passing of the bill to extend these credits would normally call for a cheer or two from me but there is something else. Built into this bill is a provision that removes certain tax incentives meant to keep U.S. oil companies competitive in the world markets. Some don’t like these subsidies but they were voted for by Reps from both sides of the legislative aisle for a reason. In any case, the issue of these subsidies does not have to be tied to the production tax credit (PTC) issue. Unfortunately the two issues are tied together.

Here’s a quote from House speaker Nancy Pelosi from the New York Times article, “The price at the pump increased 17 cents just in the past two weeks,” Ms. Pelosi, of California, continued. “Just yesterday oil prices reached another new record at $101 per barrel. This is at a time when oil companies are making record profits. Last year, ExxonMobil earned $40.6 billion in profits, the largest corporate profit in American history, and yet the administration refused to repeal billions of dollars in subsidies to big oil.”

This obsession with tying the fight against ‘big oil’ to renewable energy legislation is ridiculous. This isn’t an episode of Batman. Nancy Pelosi is not Adam West. The CEO of ExxonMobil is not Cesar Romero. If cracking the clean energy nut were as simple as knocking a big oil company out of existence maybe that would have happened by now. The situation is not that simple. In spite of what many legislators and citizens think, U.S. oil companies are not a roadblock standing in the way of a clean energy future. Oil companies are a big player in a much larger game. But there is plenty of innovation occurring and progress being made without seeking to punish big oil.

My perceptions are based on all the rhetoric we see coming out of Washington. I don’t see a lot of understanding with respect to the real problems that exist in the U.S. energy policy. I see a lot of finger pointing at supposed bad guys. This is an ultra simplistic approach to a complex problem. The whole scenario plays out like a bunch of angry, stubborn children saying, “I’ll show you!” We all get hurt though. It’s time to grow up and realize that these are two separate issues.

The anti-big oil provisions included in this latest bill are likely to derail the proposal in the Senate. That means more uncertainty and delays in clean energy investment. Perhaps our legislators in Washington should work to pass the extension that they know is so important to our clean energy future. And then once that’s done they can go back and fight it out about how to punish big oil for foisting a variety of ills on the populace.