Sen. Murkowski Offers Watered-Down Renewable Electricity Standard (RES)

Date: March 25, 2009

Source: News Room

Senate energy committee Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is working on renewable electricity standard (RES) legislation that would set a lower target and broader definition of "renewable" energy than the RPS bill submitted by committee chair Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), designed to appeal more to energy companies and consumers and more likely to win passage in the committee or Senate. Bingaman's current proposal would require utilities to secure 20 percent of their electricity supply from renewable resources -- solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, biomass, landfill gas, and incremental hydro by 2021. In contrast, Murkowski is considering a 15% by 2021 and would "take both new and existing nuclear [power] out of the baseline" from which the renewable power percentages are measured, making compliance with an RES easier. Under the Bingaman proposal, only hydropower and municipal solid waste facilities are taken out of the baseline. She said her legislation might "remove the five percent cap" on energy efficiency that Bingaman's bill includes.

In addition to senators who support proposals for a lower target and more efficiency, a separate group of 15 senators also wants Bingaman to include waste-to-energy in his legislation's definition of "renewable." The nation's 87 waste-to-energy facilities tend to be used by municipalities to convert landfill waste to electricity. "It would only help us meet our clean energy production goals to think broadly about what types of energy are considered renewable," according to a March 4 letter the senators sent to Bingaman.

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