Date: March 16, 2009
Source: News Room
Lobbyists are converging to battle over how much renewable power utilities will be required to use under legislation being crafted in a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) bill. It is a high-stakes debate involving business competition, regional politics and ideology about energy, and energy cost. A renewable electricity standard is expected in the coming months as stimulus spending, a push from Democratic leaders, and support from President Obama is adding momentum, especially since there have also been several recent efforts to make it law. The House in 2007 passed an energy bill that included a renewable electricity standard requiring utilities to use green sources for 15 percent of their power generation by 2020. The Senate dropped the provision from its version of the bill after it failed to pass on a test vote. The final compromise energy measure lacked the mandate. The House in 2008 passed an energy bill with a mandate of 20 percent by 2020, but the Senate did not act on that bill. The Senate now has seven more Democrats, several of whom replaced Republicans who did not support a national electricity standard.
However, lawmakers from Southeastern states are concerned that such a standard would lead to higher costs for regional utility companies, which would pass those prices on to consumers. Power from renewable sources made up 9.2 percent of the total electricity generated nationwide in the first 11 months of 2008, according to the most recent data available from the Energy Information Administration.
Draft legislation from Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy committee, begins with a 4 percent mandate in 2011 and tops off with a 20 percent requirement in 2020. It allows for utilities to meet one-quarter of the requirement through energy efficiency.
The amount of the mandate is only one part of the equation. Also at stake is which power sources will be considered "renewable." The Bingaman draft limits those to wind, solar, ocean, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas and hydropower created after passage of the bill. Nuclear power and clean coal technologies are not included. There is wide concern that a national mandate penalizes states that do not have the ability to generate much wind, solar or geothermal power. Their only option is to pay into a fund.
Bingaman's draft bill also does not include as renewable electricity generated from the high-temperature combustion of non-recyclable garbage. There is a push to add that type of power. A bipartisan group of 15 senators last week sent a letter to Bingaman and the committee's ranking Republican, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, asking that "waste to energy" be included. "Waste to energy can provide double benefits: it diminishes waste reserves and produces clean energy while offsetting greenhouse gas emissions," the letter says.
New Jersey-based waste-to-energy company Covanta Energy Corp. set up an office in Washington, D.C., about 18 months ago.
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