Senate debates renewable energy proposal

 

Jun 15 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dave Flessner Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Senate Democrats who want to require utilities to produce more wind- and solar-generated electricity faced a headwind of political heat Thursday from Southern Republicans and power distributors.

A proposal by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., that would require 15 percent of power generation come from renewable sources by 2020 could cost electric users in Chattanooga up to $133 million in penalties over the next decade, EPB President Harold DePriest said. The six biggest distributors for the Tennessee Valley Authority complained that they would be unfairly hurt and forced to push up electric rates by more than 20 percent under Sen. Bingaman's plan.

"We do not have the same abundant renewable resources available to us as other areas of the country," Mr. DePriest said. "We also are required under our contract and federal law to buy all of our power from TVA whether or not they meet the renewable portfolio requirement."

During Thursday's Senate floor debate on a new energy bill, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the proposed requirement for more renewable power generation "is nothing more than a tax on the Southeast United States, because our region's only option is to pay to comply."

Solar and wind power are less plentiful in the Southeast than most of the country, he said, and the Bingaman plan would impose a fine on noncomplying distributors like EPB even though TVA supplies all of its power and likely would not meet the renewable portfolio standard.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he supports more conservation and nuclear power generation to limit air pollution and global warming. Instead, the Bingaman plan, he said, would cost most Tennessee electric users an extra 2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of electricity if 15 percent of TVA's power does not come from solar, wind or biofuels.

To meet the renewable portfolio standards, TVA estimates it would have to install solar panels on 25 percent of all homes in Tennessee, erect 519 wind turbines or turn over as much land as in all of Hamilton and Bradley counties to raise crops for biofuels.

"We ought to be focusing on energy plans that reduce emissions instead of imposing fines," Sen. Alexander said during a speech on the Senate floor.

Republicans lost by a 39-56 vote an attempt to substitute a clean-production standard using nuclear and hydro-electric power rather than the Energy Committee's portfolio for renewable energy. But under GOP pressure, Democrats had to delay any vote on their plan for a renewable portfolio standard.

The leader of a Tennessee environmental group on Thursday criticized a Chattanooga trade group and its members for lobbying Congress to reject the renewable fuel standard.

"The people of Tennessee want more clean, renewable energy, but unfortunately the distributors and their representatives at the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association in Chattanooga are spending public dollars to lobby Congress to defeat measures for more renewable power," said Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "That's not right, especially considering the economic, health and environmental benefits of this proposal."

Jack Simmons, president of TVPPA, said his group is working on behalf of distributor customers to avoid unfair and costly rate increases that could come from the proposed penalties in the legislation. Mr. Simmons said "a very, very minor" share of his agency's budget goes for lobbying and what advocacy that is done in Washington, D.C., is designed to help consumers.

Last year, TVPPA, which is supported by 158 distributors of TVA including EPB, paid the Washington lobbying firm of Morgan Mequire LLC $120,000 for lobbying expenses in Washington, according to Federal Election Commission filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.