Wind industry hits DC to demand Renewable Energy Standard

March 9, 2010

The wind industry has organized more than 70 meetings in Washington tomorrow

The wind industry has convened in Washington DC to urge US lawmakers to include a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) within legislation passing through Congress.

Around 120 lobbyists and industry chiefs arrived on Capitol Hill today, calling for a long-term target for utilities to source 25% of their electricity supplies from renewable energy by 2025.

They also want to see some kind of “aggressive” interim target of 10% by 2012 in order to stir immediate action.

Some 70 meetings are planned for tomorrow for the wind industry to argue its case to various congressmen.

They believe the current piecemeal approach of yearly tax credit awards is making it harder for clean energy project developers to finance their endeavours. A longer-term policy signal that there will be strong demand for renewable energy is what’s needed, they will tell congressmen.

The word on all of their lips will be “jobs” – with their belief that a nationalised renewable energy requirement will bring in billions in investment, while creating tens of thousands of employment opportunities in the US.

“We need to drive demand in a stable, predictable way,” said Vic Abate, Vice President for Renewables, GE Energy, the largest supplier of wind turbines in the US market. “For the jobs to grow the Renewable Electricity Standard is critical.”

“As a global power company, we balance and make decisions about where to invest years in advance,” said Ned Hall, Executive Vice President, AES Wind Generation, based in Arlington, Va. “So I am here to call on Congress to pass a national Renewable Electricity Standard, to create long-term demand in the US.”

While Europe has a set of centralized renewable energy targets in place to drive the clean energy sector there, in the US there are such mechanisms in place in only a little over half the states. As well as forcing states without a RES in place to catch up, industry experts suggest a nationwide standard would encourage more regional, inter-state co-operation in renewable energy projects, such as transmission system upgrades.

Investment

Manufacturers are chomping at the bit to come to the US” - Donald Furman, Iberdrola Renewables

Extending a Renewable Energy Standard to all states in this US would bring “explosive” growth to the economy according to the industry trade group, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Denise Bode, its CEO, said today: “A national RES will result not just in new installations, but also in new manufacturing. The RES is the most important buy-American policy we can do.”

The meetings in Washington tomorrow also come just days after a group of senators proposed restricting current economic stimulus funding for clean energy projects to US-owned companies, rather than merely US-based infrastructure projects (see this BrighterEnergy.org story).

The wind industry is arguing that while Recovery Act funding may be going to foreign-owned companies, those companies are investing far more in the US by developing clean energy infrastructure here.

“Manufacturers are chomping at the bit to come to the US and it would be a tragedy if this investment were to stop,” said Donald Furman, Senior Vice President, Iberdrola Renewables, based in Portland, Oregon, and President of the Board of the American Wind Energy Association.