ASSAULT ON NEW ENERGY

State Renewable Energy Standards Under Attack from GOP Legislators; Legislators in Montana, Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri are trying to weaken or dismantle RPS policies, creating instability in clean energy markets
Maria Gallucci, February 9, 2011 (Solve Climate via Reuters)

"Republican legislators in Montana, Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri are separately trying to weaken or dismantle the renewable portfolio standards in their states, which are seen as crucial to U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a globally competitive clean economy.

"Officials pushing the bills say that energy prices soar and consumers suffer when utilities are required to allocate a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar. Clean energy groups counter that lowering the bar on state renewable energy policies would stifle new investment and kill jobs…"

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"If passed, the bills would go against the trend among most states to strengthen standards and attract clean energy developers by creating a market for renewables…Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have mandatory standards in place, and seven states have renewable portfolio goals…In the last two years, states such as California, New York, Nevada and Colorado have voted to increase or even double their requirements."

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"…[S]tates act as a kind of laboratory of best practices and success stories for federal climate policy. President Obama in his State of the Union address last month called for 80 percent of the country's electricity to come from cleaner sources by 2035, such as solar, wind, natural gas, nuclear and 'clean coal.'"

[Warren Leon, consultant, Clean Energy States Alliance:] "Budgets are tight at the state level, and people are rightfully looking at ways to save money. So a lot of ideas get thrown out there…[but] renewable generation diversifies the electricity supply and tends to make electricity prices less vulnerable to fluctuations in fossil fuel prices. In the case of New York and California, where the [energy commissions] have evaluated their RPS's, they have found that ... the net effect is to lower electricity prices."