IEA Commends U.S. for Action on Renewables
WASHINGTON, DC, US. The United States is a world leader in research to lower
the cost of wind and solar PV, says the International Energy Agency.
“The U.S. has made good progress on the way to a more sustainable energy
system and successfully demonstrated its ability to react to supply
disruptions,” said IEA head Nobuo Tanaka in presenting the publication
‘Energy Policies of IEA Countries - United States 2007 Review.' He praised
the government's Energy Policy Act 2005 as the first comprehensive energy
legislation in decade and commended the government on the passage of the
2007 Energy Bill, noting the energy efficiency provisions of the 2005 law as
vitally important.
“Improvements to U.S. energy policy are also possible; particular room for
energy efficiency improvements exist in transport and in power generation,
where pressure to improve efficiency has been low due to low prices for
fuels,” Tanaka adds. “Particularly in the transport sector, low prices,
congestion in urban areas and the lack of mass transport are increasing the
use of gasoline, thereby weakening U.S. energy security, and raising
greenhouse gas emissions.”
The United States has seen “tremendous growth in the development of wind
power due to the very supportive framework in some states and the federal
production tax credit,” the report notes. “But the stop-start nature of the
credit has a negative impact on the development of a domestic wind power
industry.”
“The rapid growth of wind power in the U.S. shows what can be done, and what
could be done year on year, if the U.S. government were to introduce a
federal renewable portfolio standard,” Tanaka notes. “We would very much
welcome an Alternative Fuel Requirement for electricity in the U.S. , just
like the one for transport fuels, to help the U.S. renewables industry on a
sustained growth path.”
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have established renewable
portfolio standards using differing design principles and goals, and these
policies, together with the federal tax credit for wind power production,
“have helped the United States renewables industry to grow considerably, in
particular in the area of wind power generation, but the different standards
are also imposing a cost on the economy through their lack of consistency,”
the report notes. “The federal government has stated that it has no
intention to introduce an RPS for electricity, and has only outlined
relatively modest goals for the contribution of renewables to future
electricity supply, a policy different from that in vehicle fuels, where a
federal standard has been established with EPAct 2005.”
“The federal government's concern is that establishing a uniform federal
power standard may not be appropriate because of the significant
geographical variations in renewable resource endowments,” it explains. “On
the other hand, trading green certificates across state borders, to the
extent that transmission capacity permits, would help to overcome this
perceived barrier, as has been seen in other IEA member countries. The
federal government should, therefore, consider the establishment of a
federal electricity RPS covering the whole of the United States , to mirror
the policy in the transport fuels sector, taking into account cross-border
trade of electricity.”
“As a minimum, it would be useful to establish at least a common basis for
the design of RPS across the country, to ensure their compatibility, and to
establish a federal registry for RPS credits, so that they can be traded
nationally,” it adds.
The United States is the world's largest provider of funds for research into
new technologies and is driving the development of technologies relating to
carbon sequestration, second-generation cellulose-derived biofuels, and
fourth-generation nuclear reactors. It has substantial R&D under way to
improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles and lower the costs of renewable
electricity sources, with “substantial financial support” available at the
federal or state level to deploy some of these technologies.
“The U.S. government is strongly supporting the development of clean energy
solutions, which will benefit other countries as well,” says Tanaka. “It is
a leader in research funding, and deeply involved in international
collaboration; the work being done in U.S. laboratories today addresses many
of the energy challenges we are facing.”
The U.S. is investing in clean coal technologies, and the government should
consider using this money to support low- and zero-emission coal
technologies to allow coal to compete against renewables, natural gas and
nuclear, it recommends. The government should “reduce fossil fuel dependence
and GHG emissions by pursuing more aggressive demand-side and clean energy
policies. In particular, introduce policies that go beyond those currently
proposed to increase the efficiency of the power, transport and building
sectors.”
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