EFFECTS OF A NEW ENERGY STANDARD

What Should a Federal Clean Energy Standard Look Like? The Congressional Budget Office weighs in.
Katherine Tweed, August 4, 2011 (Greentech Media)

"It’s going to be wind and biomass, and it’s going to cost some money…[according to The Results of Renewable or Clean Electricity Standards] from the Congressional Budget Office…

"…[T]he CBO assessed seven different scenarios for the standards. The study found that, depending on the structure of the policy, such as whether non-renewables (natural gas) would be worth partial credits or if alternative compliance payments were allowed, there were very different outcomes. But any national standard, the authors argued, would be better than the state-by-state approach that is currently happening…"

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"Electricity prices would increase in nearly every region for each scenario, whether it’s a CES or RES and whether or not there are alternative compliance payments. The increase, however, averages around 2 percent to 4 percent more than what customers pay now, which is less than an extra cent per kilowatt-hour…"

"The overlap of state and federal policies would be problematic, but [workable]…
Any successful scheme would have to include unrestricted trading where credits are bought and sold by utilities independently of electricity generation…Including options, such as natural gas-fired plants or even certain energy efficiency measures would help meet more stringent standards…[A]lternative options could be worth just a fraction of a credit compared to wind or solar…Neither an RES nor a CES will be as effective as a cap-and-trade program…"