Clean Energy for America
What's New
Representatives' Udall (D-MN) and Platts (R-PA) introduced a 20% renewable electricity standard by 2020 (H.R. 969) in February 2007. With over 120 co-sponsors this piece of legislation is awaiting a committee hearing.
Michigan Congressional members signed on to the legislation thus far are Conyers, Kilpatrick, Levin, Kildee, and Ehlers.
In early 2007, Environment Michigan staff played a pivotal role in passing H.R. 6, a bill to take away excessive subsidies from polluting industries. The bill is a strong first step toward a new energy future built on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
How you can help
We’re asking citizens to join us in calling on Congress to adopt a Renewable Electricity Standard that would require that utilities generate at least 20 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2020. Click here to take action.
Overview
What is a renewable electricity standard?
A renewable electricity standard, also sometimes called a renewable
portfolio standard, requires electric service providers to gradually
increase the amount of renewable energy resources—such as wind, solar,
bioenergy, and geothermal—in their electricity supplies, until they
reach a specified target by a specified date.
The renewable electricity standard is a market-based policy that creates competition among renewable generators, providing the greatest amount of clean power for the lowest price and creating an ongoing incentive to drive costs down. The steady, predictable, and long-term clean energy market supported by a renewable electricity standard enables developers to obtain lower-cost financing and achieve economies of scale and production that make renewable energy technologies more competitive.
U.S. citizens already benefit from similar standards in other sectors of the economy. Energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, for example, are common at the state and federal level. And the airline, automobile, food, and pharmaceutical industries must follow standards that ensure public safety, economic stability, and environmental protection. These standards help society achieve goals and meet needs—such as clean, safe, sustainable, and affordable energy—that might otherwise go unattained.
Renewable electricity standards have emerged as an effective and popular tool in the United States and elsewhere. Twenty-one states plus Washington, DC, have adopted standards, and the U.S. Senate has voiced its support for a national standard three times since 2002. Other countries such as Australia, China, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, as well as several provinces in Canada, have all adopted renewable electricity standards.
Why is renewable energy important?
Fortunately, renewable energy resources such as wind, solar,
bioenergy, and geothermal are capable of meeting a significant
proportion of America's energy needs, and can help alleviate many of
the problems mentioned above while providing other important benefits.
A strong commitment to renewable energy development can:
- Protect our environment and public health by avoiding or reducing emissions that contribute to smog, acid rain, and global warming; and by reducing water consumption, thermal pollution, waste, noise, and adverse land use
- Increase economic development and create new family-wage jobs
- Create new competition to help restrain fossil fuel price increases
- Improve our national security
- Diversify our fuel mix and enhance the reliability of fuel supplies
- Insulate our economy from fossil fuel price spikes and supply shortages or disruptions
- Reduce a growing reliance on imported fuel and electricity
- Reduce the cost of complying with present and future environmental regulations
- Conserve our natural resources for future generations