Ahead of the Bell: Renewable Energy Bill
By ALAN ZIBEL
House lawmakers are expected to debate this week a hotly contested effort to require electric utilities to produce more power from renewable sources such as wind and biomass.
The proposal is strongly opposed by the utility industry's biggest trade group, the Edison Electric Institute, and by Atlanta-based Southern Co., a major coal burner that has made defeating the measure a priority.
In a letter sent to lawmakers last week, Thomas Kuhn, the trade group's president, said the industry is "deeply concerned" by the proposal, arguing that it would discriminate against utilities in places without lots of wind or other renewable resources.
However, the American Wind Energy Association, which includes big wind turbine makers such as General Electric Co., is aggressively pushing for it, running a series of television ads that argue wind power is an economic boon for rural areas.
The wind industry also argues that the requirement would reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. "This is really an industry that is betting the country is going to do the right thing," said Gregory Wetstone, the wind trade group's director of government affairs.
A similar proposal failed last month in the Senate after Republicans refused to let the measure come up for a vote.
A proposed amendment to a broad energy package by Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., would require power companies to increase use of wind turbines, solar panels, biomass, geothermal energy or other renewable sources to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity by 2020. Only about 2.3 percent of the country's electricity is produced that way now.
The House proposal would be a more ambitious target than a Senate proposal that would have set a 15 percent target for renewables by 2020. Similar requirements already exist in 24 states and Washington, D.C., according to statistics compiled by Edison Electric Institute.
While many utilities around the country are able to meet state-level renewable requirements through the installation of wind turbines, Southern Co. says there are not enough windy areas in the Southeast for wind to be practical there.
The company has calculated that, to meet the requirements by burning biomass to make electricity, it would have to plant crops on an area the size of Connecticut, said Southern Co. spokesman Jason Cuevas.
"It would be an expensive proposal and one that we could not realistically meet in a cost-effective manner for our customers," Cuevas said.
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