PIERRE, S.D. - South Dakota should join a regional group that will supervise the trading of credits for electricity generated by wind and other renewable energy sources, the House State Affairs Committee decided Wednesday.
HB1016, sent unanimously to the full House, was offered by the Public Utilities Commission and would allow South Dakota to participate in the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System.
A similar bill was rejected in the final days of the 2005 Legislature.
PUC Chairman Bob Sahr and Vice-Chairman Dusty Johnson explained the bill to the committee. They said energy credits are earned on power production from such things as the wind, sun and hydroelectric dams.
Those renewable energy companies sell the credits to utilities that need the credits to comply with regulations that a certain amount of their power comes from renewable sources. Some states impose those requirements for the use of renewable energy, but South Dakota does not.
Business can buy renewable energy credits to show their support for renewable energy sources and the environment, the PUC commissioners said. Sahr said Vermont-based Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream already buys credits on electricity produced by a wind turbine on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.
"They're not getting any of the electricity coming all the way out to Vermont," Sahr said. "But they're able to support the renewable-energy side of it by buying what they call a green credit."
Sahr said the credits provide an additional commodity for renewable energy companies, such as wind farms.
"Right now, you can sell the electricity off that project. But what this does is create a second product, which is the fact that it comes from renewable energy," he told The Associated Press after the meeting.
Johnson said the regional tracking system will prove the validity of renewable credits, ensure that they are only sold once, and provide a trading exchange for the credits.
Officials from South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and the Canadian province of Manitoba worked to design the system. They will now work on setting up a governing board and a computer system to track the production and sale of credits.
South Dakota is the only state involved in the project that has not passed a law allowing participation in a tracking system.
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