SUNS  4359  Monday  25 January 1999

Environment: US lawmakers push increased wind, solar energy use



Washington, Jan 21 (IPS/Danielle Knight -- U.S. lawmakers are hoping to increase the share of electricity generated from renewable energy sources, such as the wind and sun, and thus decrease electricity prices, says a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

As many U.S. states deregulate their electricity utilities in the hope of increasing competition and lowering prices, six proposed energy bills circulating in Congress aim to support the growth of renewable energy generation.

The most aggressive proposal could increase the use of renewable energy by about ten times, says the Washington-based advocacy group in its report, titled 'A Powerful Opportunity' and released Thursday.

"Congress has a powerful opportunity to clean up America's electricity by making renewable energy the standard," says Steve Clemmer, a policy analyst with the UCS. "If the new market rules are designed to promote cleaner, renewable energy sources, then we could see lower prices, robust competition, and environmental improvement."

The report says increasing the use of renewable energy over fossil fuels such as coal and oil would put a brake on power-plant emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping greenhouse gas believed to cause global warming.

Powerful coal and oil industries and their Republican allies in Congress charge that reducing carbon emissions in compliance with the international global warming treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, will raise
energy prices and cause the economy to crumble.

But the UCS says the bills being proposed in Congress ensure a significant increase in less-polluting energy sources such as the sun and wind, while reducing costs to consumers.

Lawmakers from both political parties have introduced six different plans, known as Renewable Portfolio Standards, which would make it mandatory for a gradually increasing percentage of U.S. electricity to be generated from renewable sources.

The targeted proportions range from 4 percent in 2010 under a bill introduced by Republican Representative Dan Schaefer of Colorado to 20 percent by the year 2020 in a more aggressive proposal introduced last year by Republican Senator James Jeffords. Only two to three percent of
the electricity now being generated comes from renewable energy sources, says the report.

Over the next two decades, utility restructuring is expected to lead to lower consumer prices as expensive power plants are replaced with cheaper, more efficient ones.

By factoring in projected fuel prices and the current cost of renewable energy, the report predicts that Jeffords' proposal would cut the monthly electricity bill of an average household from the current rate of 40 dollars to 35.37 in the year 2020.

The administration of President Bill Clinton has also introduced a utility restructuring proposal that supports renewable energy. This proposal, which is weaker than Jeffords', would require 5.5 percent renewable energy use by 2010.

While this would reduce people's energy bills, it would not result in as great a switch away from fossil fuel use.

In order to reach the set targets as cheaply as possible, all of the federal bills propose to create a national renewable energy credit-trading market to implement the Renewable Portfolio Standards.
Under this plan electricity companies would be allowed to purchase credits from certified renewable generators rather than physically generating the power themselves or purchasing the power directly.

"This design is meant to help ensure that the targets are met in the least expensive manner by creating an incentive to develop renewable resources where the difference between the price of renewable generation and the electricity it displaces is the lowest," says the report.

A company in a windy area, for example may find it cheap and easy to comply with the minimum renewable energy target by investing in wind turbines. It could then sell its extra credits to companies that do not have as strong a renewable source.

Many US states - including Maine, Nevada and Massachusetts - have already passed Renewable Portfolio Standards as part of electricity-restructuring legislation. Some states have also adopted
million-dollar funds which foster private investment in renewable energy.

In California, these funds are expected to leverage an additional two billion dollars in private investment, according to the report.
As states use more wind and solar energy sources, they are discovering that renewables create more jobs and income than coal and natural gas power plants.

"This is mainly because much of the revenue for manufacturing, installing, and operating renewable energy technologies remains in the region where they are built, instead of leaking out to pay for imported fossil fuels," says Clemmer.

During the 1990s, the renewable electricity industry employed nearly 117,000 people nationwide.

"In the state of Wisconsin," says Clemmer, "investments in renewable energy could create three times as many jobs and income than investments in coal and gas."