Legislation
Clean Energy Standard Input Sought
Senior members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have released a white paper setting out key questions and potential design elements of a Clean Energy Standard.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman
A standard requiring that 80 percent of the nation’s electricity come from clean energy technologies by 2035 was proposed by President Obama in his State of the Union Address, but has not been precisely defined.
The committee faces a “threshold question,” Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, indicated in releasing the document. It must determine the general policy goals for the electric sector and whether a clean energy standard would most effectively achieve them, they specified.
“Is the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower electricity costs, spur utilization of particular assets, diversify supply, or some combination thereof?” the paper inquired.
The six-page paper suggested several elements for clean energy standard proposals. It solicited input from interested parties by April 11, “to facilitate discussion and to ascertain whether or not consensus can be achieved.”
The elements included:
• The threshold for inclusion. The president’s proposal did not appear to contain a threshold, the paper noted, meaning all electric utilities would be responsible for meeting new requirements.
• The resources that would qualify as “clean energy.” Previous proposals included nuclear, coal with carbon capture and storage, and efficient natural gas without CCS, as well as renewables, the paper pointed out.
• The design of crediting systems and timetables. This will impact the technologies deployed and the ultimate costs, the document said.
• The standard’s effect on deployment of specific technologies. How the value of credits created by a standard changes the economics of individual technologies will determine which get deployed, the paper indicated.
• The treatment of alternative compliance payments, regional costs and consumer protection. Goals include ensuring price certainty, minimizing regional disparities and containing costs, it specified.
• The clean energy standard’s interaction with other policies. “Technology-specific supporting policies may be necessary,” the document suggested.
NRECA will comment on the white paper and staff is in the process of collecting information to answer the many detailed questions raised.
“These questions demonstrate how complicated it is to develop a single national standard mandating the use of clean energy,” said Kirk Johnson, NRECA senior vice president for government relations.
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