Renewable-mandate backers upbeat about vote

Backers of a federal mandate for renewable energy production say they are closing in on a majority for an expected Friday vote.

“My sense is we have a lot of momentum in the House,” said Gregory Wetstone, senior director for government and public affairs at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

{mosads}Wind-energy producers stand to be a big beneficiary of a renewable mandate because wind power, along with solar energy, is more cost-competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources than are other renewable power sources.

A victory in the House would revive the renewable portfolio bill, which failed to win sufficient support in the Senate to be part of its broader energy legislation.

Environmental groups and a few utilities that already rely on renewable sources to produce a significant share of their power have pushed for a federal mandate for years.

Previously, it has been the House that proved the obstacle, as the Republican majority blocked similar renewable mandates from floor votes and then refused to accede to the Senate’s then-favorable position in conference.

Reps. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Todd Platts (R-Pa.) co-authored a bill that would require utilities to produce 20 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2020. The bill is expected to be offered as an amendment to a broader energy bill on Friday.

Wetstone said he was cautiously optimistic his side would win the vote. But the vote could come down to the wire. One lobbyist for a utility that supports the renewable portfolio standard said a whip count showed proponents remained four or five votes down, even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced her support for the bill last week.

Yesterday, farm and labor groups joined with the American Wind Energy Association in a news conference to urge passage of the renewable energy measure.

The president of the National Farmers Union, Tom Buis, said the bill would provide “significant economic opportunity in rural America.”

The rural upper Midwest is particularly attractive to wind-energy producers. Farmers can make thousands of dollars by allowing giant wind turbines to be built on their land. The farmers union said wind-farm leases could generate at least $475 million.

The House bill expanded exemptions for public power utilities and rural cooperatives in order to avoid opposition from two powerful lobbies and maintain the support of rural lawmakers.

Even so, the standard would capture the vast majority of power producers in the country.

A letter from AWEA and the Solar Energy Industries Association sent to the House called the Udall-Platts amendment a “vitally important start on reducing harmful greenhouse-gas pollution.” The letter also said the renewable-energy mandate would lower power prices by reducing demand for natural gas, which currently accounts for about 20 percent of the electricity produced nationally.

But utilities in the Southeast, including Southern Co. and Entergy, remain opposed to the federal mandate, arguing that the region does not have sufficient sources of renewable energy and that the mandate would in fact raise their consumers’ rates.

Although supporters say that what the Southeast lacks in wind and sunshine it can make up for with biomass, utility regulators from the region have joined the industry in opposing the mandate.

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents privately held utilities, was lobbying against the federal mandate. In a letter it sent to Capitol Hill last week, EEI said the bill would result in a “significant wealth transfer from regions without renewable resources to those with such resources.”