According to AP reporter Frederic J. Frommer, as Senate sponsors of a climate bill prepare to unveil their legislation, a coalition of governors from 29 states wants the federal government to take steps to boost wind energy. The bipartisan Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition made their recommendations in a report to Congress and the White House.
When John Kerry introduced the climate bill last September that he co-authored with Barbara Boxer, he heralded action to stop global warming as “one of the most important battles we will ever face, as legislators and as citizens.”
The report, titled “Great Expectations,” (PDF) noted that some states have renewable energy standards but others don’t. “These standards vary considerably from state to state, complicating compliance by the electric-power and renewable-energy industries,” the report said.
“We offer our assistance in working with Congress and the administration to achieve one of the nation’s principal energy goals, energy independence, and increasing the role that wind energy plays in meeting that challenge,” wrote the coalition’s chairman, Iowa Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, and its vice chairman, GOP Gov. Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island, in a letter to congressional leaders. A nearly identical letter was sent to President Barack Obama.
Besides implementation of a Renewable Energy Standard, other recommendations by the group include:
- Developing new infrastructure for electricity transmission to provide access to renewable energy resources.
- Funding technology to develop wind energy in “wind-rich” coastal areas.
- Streamlining the permitting process for wind energy projects.
- Extending an economic stimulus grant program for wind projects, and providing a long-term extension of a wind energy production tax credit.
“The governors said that although the House began to address increasing wind power’s role in climate legislation it passed last year, they are anxious to see the Senate follow through.” In a weblog post titled, “The Disappearing Climate Bill,” MoJo Green Reporter Kate Sheppard echoed that concern, noting “a rhetorical shift” by Senator Kerry.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Kerry suggested that his pollution-cutting plans are only an afterthought. “It’s primarily a jobs bill, and an energy independence bill and a pollution reduction-health-clean air bill,” said Kerry. “Climate sort of follows. It’s on for the ride.”
If Emperor Fossil has his way, this will be a lot of folderol amounting to greater subsidization of coal and nuclear and allowance of off-shore oil drilling and not wind turbines. Still, it would be nice to witness a valiant effort to discourage the dirtiest fuels and plants.
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- APNewsBreak: Governors seek wind energy boost (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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The Union of Concerned Scientists with the assistance of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the Tellus Institute put together the Clean Energy Blueprint, a portfolio of policies for federal adoption. According to Renee Cho, their plan is that the federal government would provide certain incentives.
A first step is an RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard). The Clean Energy Blueprint suggest requiring electricity suppliers to gradually increase renewable energy from about 2% today to 20% by 2020. The plan would exempt hydro-power.
As this blog has argued, a better plan would be to increase the requirement according to pounds of CO2 per kW-hr. Those utilities producing electricity from hydro-power could benefit, as could those utilities with nuclear power or wind or solar.
Other measures include:
Secretary of Energy Chu of late has been sounding like Amory Lovins, i.e., pushing energy efficiency.
Some utilities have fought net metering, so it is more controversial than picking $20 bills off the floor. Yet, other than an emissions adjusted renewable energy standard, development of national standards and market for distributed energy production is probably the most important element of the Clean Energy Blueprint.
It is quited unlikely that the ear-tagged Congress critters will allow a feed-in tariff. How unlikely is it that Japan will adopt such energy policy?
For Business Weekly, Shigeru Sato and Michio Nakayama (with assistance from Takashi Hirokawa in Tokyo and Editors: Alex Devine, Ryan Woo) report that “a Japanese trade ministry panel proposed expanding the feed-in tariff. The policy would require utilities “to buy electricity at a premium from hydropower stations, wind turbine and geothermal operators.”
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