Report Says Uniform Rules Save Utilities and Consumers Billions    

NEW YORK, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

Congress is set for a showdown this week over a controversial provision in the Senate energy bill. The federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) would require utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity using renewable resources by 2020. The Senate has passed an RPS three times since 2002, only to have it quashed in the House. This week, Senate Democrats may be within a single vote of overcoming a threatened filibuster by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), former Chair of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.    

Domenici's largest campaign contributor is Southern Company, a utility that has long opposed a national RPS on the grounds that it would increase electricity rates in the South where there are few renewable resources.    

The Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC) teamed with experts from Virginia Tech to examine the impacts of RPS policies in over 23 states. They concluded that a national standard would actually save utilities billions of dollars and decrease consumer electricity rates.    

"Large utilities are already paying to comply with a patchwork of inconsistent state policies," said NNEC Senior Policy Director Chris Cooper, the report's primary author. "If America's interstate highway system were structured like our renewable electricity market, drivers would have to change engines, tire pressure, and fuel mixture every time they crossed state lines. We found that a uniform national policy could save utilities over $14 billion and save consumers in every region of the country."    

Among NNEC's findings:    

-- Consumers in every region of the United States save billions of dollars, including nearly $3 billion in savings for the South Atlantic states.    

-- A national policy decreases the price of natural gas, which saves utilities billions of dollars in fuel costs.    

-- Consistent rules prevent price gouging by some utilities that profit off of the inconsistencies between state regulations.    

-- A national RPS is easier to comply with than a tangle of state policies since it allows utilities to invest in renewable resources anywhere in the nation.    

Download a copy of NNEC's report (4.9MB) and executive summary here: Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National RPS (http:/www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) .    

Or visit http://www.NewEnergyChoices.org.

SOURCE Network for New Energy Choices