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WASHINGTON, DC, US, September 21, 2005
(Refocus Weekly)
Seven policy options have been suggested for the
next phase of national support for renewables in the United States.
The American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) has completed
roundtable meetings on renewable energy policy in 12 cities across
the country, in preparation for its next conference that will define
the industry’s position on the next phase of national policy.
“The renewable energy provisions in the 2005 energy bill are helpful
but are not the total answer,” says Hank Habicht, a member of
ACORE's advisory board. “The challenge is to build a strategy that
is a market-focused synthesis of the best ideas currently in play
from the labs, the states and Wall Street.”
ACORE held meetings in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles,
Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco,
Worcester and Washington over the summer, in which 300 experts on
renewable energy technologies, economics, applications, industry,
regulation and policy participated. Based on the regional meetings,
two key elements of a Phase II policy framework will be “a
commitment to longer-term, more stable and predictable government
policy, and greater political balance with liberal arguments for a
better society, moderate arguments for economic growth and jobs, and
conservative arguments for lower taxation.”
Among the policy options for green power that emerged from the
roundtables was the development of a backbone transmission system
“as a national priority” to link renewable energy in rural areas
with load centres, and looking at new ways to set utility rates
based on long-term fixed rate options. It will also examine a means
to monetize the environmental benefits of renewables through
national and regional trading of RECs so that Wall Street can create
a futures market, looking at the RPS mechanism and other means of
encouraging utility acceptance of renewable energy (both mandatory
and voluntary), shifting economic incentives from cost-based
subsidies that were useful for early adopters to revenue-side
(performance based) incentives that attract private investment, and
accelerating the adoption of distributed generation and smart grid
technology.
It also suggests that the charter of the federal Department of
Energy be amended to focus on technology transfer rather than
demonstrations.
The call for a second phase of development for renewables was
proposed at ACORE's policy conference last year and “it caught on
across the country,” says chairman Rob Pratt. “Now, a question for
policy development is: what are the national policies that will
result in renewable energy contributing 20%-30%-40% of national
energy supply by 2020- 2030-2040?”
The roundtables also proposed policy options for the transportation
sector, noting that there is no incentive at any level of government
for consumers to purchase biofuels, and no government incentive for
people to upgrade the efficiency of their cars. Participants backed
the development of a more comprehensive policy for the
transportation energy sector based on what will be best for the
American people.
In the buildings sector, there was support for integrating economic
incentive polices that encourage energy efficiency and solar energy
together, as well as support for reforming codes, standards and
permitting.
“There is a tremendous amount of policy work to be done before Phase
II is in the implementation mode,” adds Roger Ballentine, ACORE
conference co-chair. “For that reason, the time to start is now.”
“The Phase II conference will set the stage for the next 30 years of
renewable energy policy,” says co-chair Dan Reicher, former
assistant secretary of energy.
The policy conference is organized with the Renewable Energy &
Energy Efficiency Caucuses of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of
Representatives, and speakers will include the secretaries of energy
and of agriculture as well as state governors.
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