It's nice to know that there are countries that can come up with an energy bill that is good for the environment, economy, long time security, and is terrorist resistant, unlike the backward thinking, suck up to the coal and oil industry pork barrel policy that this administration and Congress comes up with.....
London, England - December 2, 2003 [SolarAccess.com] Just a week after the U.S. Congress failed to gain adequate support for a broad and contentious energy bill, the UK has passed their own comprehensive energy legislation. And it dwarfs the piecemeal efforts made toward renewable energy in the U.S. senate.
The new bill, published this week, will help promote renewable energy and competitive and reliable energy supplies for now and generations to come in the UK by building on and implementing recommendations in a recent White Paper report on energy which was hailed by the renewable energy industry.
"The Energy White paper was a milestone in energy policy," Energy Minister Stephen Timms said. "It set out a new strategy for the long-term, based upon four goals: environmental protection, energy reliability, competitive markets and affordable energy for all. This Bill demonstrates that we are serious about meeting the challenging targets of the White Paper, with measures which will help us ensure that 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by the year 2010.
The Energy Bill, introduced in the House of Lords, will implement a range of commitments made in the Energy White Paper: Our energy future - creating a low carbon economy, published in February. The White Paper saw increasing use of renewable energy as both a positive and necessary step for the country.
Apparently, their U.S. counterparts across the ocean in the U.S. Congress didn't see renewable energy in the same light. Legislation contained in earlier incarnations of the U.S. energy bill also called for a similar 10 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) but this was dropped in the final conference version. Congressional opposition to lawsuit protection for the manufacturers of the known pollutant MTBE largely shelved the bill until Congress resumes debate in January. While there remained some important legislation for the renewable energy industry, most of the failed energy bill favored the traditional fossil fuel and nuclear industries. Despite its faults, failure of the larger energy bill also allowed an embedded tax credit, crucial for the U.S. wind industry, to expire which could have dire consequences for the industry in the U.S.
The UK has clearly taken a different approach. Not only does the new UK legislation establish a sizeable RPS standard but it actually raised the originally anticipated percentage. According to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), the legislation's Renewables Obligation will increase by 50 percent. In addition to calling for the country to source 10 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2010, the UK is now calling for the Renewable Obligation percentage to increase to 15 percent by 2015......
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