FROM RENEWABLE TO CLEAN

The RES is Dead, Long Live the CES; A national renewable electricity standard died on Election Day, clean energy lobbyists say.
Bill Opalka, November 5, 2010( Renewables Biz)

"Even renewable energy's back-up plan for federal support appears to be off the table…[T]he renewable electricity standard (RES) that has been bandied about Capitol Hill for a decade…includes wind, solar biomass and possibly hydro as a clean energy fuel source. Expanding the definition to include nuclear and possibly carbon capture turns that into a clean energy standard (CES).

"The changeover in the U.S. House of Representatives from Republican to Democratic control will have numerous implications for renewable energy…[One of the speakers at] an election post-mortem webinar hosted by the law firm Chadbourne & Parke…said the switch is a "net negative" for renewable energy generally. A common view was that energy incentives, mostly in the form of "tax extenders" for project development were as far as Congress was likely to go in the lame duck session in late November."

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"A consensus view, even one admitted by President Obama himself, is that carbon cap-and-trade is dead in the next Congress…[and] a modest RES similar to the one that passed a Senate committee - 15 percent by 2021 including energy efficiency - now appears to be without a future as well…"

[Jonathan Weisgall, MidAmerican Energy Holdings:] "I think the major impact of the elections would be to turn that RES into a CES, turning that renewable electricity standard into a clean electricity standard that would include nuclear, would include carbon capture and storage, which I think is more in keeping with Republican mantra of `more of all of the above'…That of course changes things, because a federal RES has a goal of promoting renewables. A clean energy standard has a broader goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

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"The move to a CES is not without precedent. The idea was floated in Arizona this year but was shot down rather quickly…The industry had hoped that the RES could be considered in the lame duck session late in November, but the speakers said the session will be consumed by pressing matters that have to be dealt with by year's end: continued federal spending that would run out in early December; the Bush tax cuts; and extending unemployment benefits…"

[Richard Glick, Iberdrola Renewable Energies:] "I think we need to broaden our minds in the renewable community and not be as doctrinaire as we've been in the past…If you broaden the definition you're going to have to increase the numbers we've been talking about [perhaps in the 25 to 30 percent range]…"