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Harry Reid For the amendment John Ensign Against the amendment

Friday, March 15, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

'Green power' measure rejected

Senate says 'no' to bill to require more renewable energy

WASHINGTON -- Renewable energy proponents lost a battle Thursday to aggressively boost solar, wind, biomass and other alternative power industries.

The U.S. Senate rejected an effort by Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., to require utilities in every state to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The rest could originate from traditional coal, natural gas and nuclear sources.

Jeffords' amendment would have given utilities nationwide 15 years to fortify their renewable energy portfolios. It failed, 70-29. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., voted for the amendment. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., voted against it.

The proposal was seen as a boost to geothermal, solar and wind energy industries in Nevada, where permits are being sought for renewable energy power plants.

Nevada already is installing its own renewable portfolio standard that will require 15 percent of the state's energy to come from green sources by 2015, the most aggressive renewable portfolio in the nation.

Under a national standard, utilities that couldn't meet the green energy requirement would have had to buy credits from utilities that have an excess of renewable power.

Jeffords argued that an aggressive federal standard will help reduce air pollution and boost jobs in rural states where windmills, geothermal plants and other renewable energy plants could be built.

"The resources are there," Jeffords said. "This will create billions of dollars in jobs and investment."

He said his home state is a large wind energy producer, and also is plagued by acid rain caused by coal-fired plants in the Midwest whose soot blows to the East.

The amendment was offered as the Senate continued to debate a Democrat-written energy bill. The bill already contains a provision requiring a 10 percent renewable portfolio standard by 2020, but Republicans were threatening to offer an amendment to strip it from the package.

Democrats were considering a less aggressive standard as a compromise, but no further action was taken Thursday night.

Led by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, Republicans argued any federal renewable standard would amount to an expensive federal mandate on states.

Murkowski said despite $6.5 billion in federal tax breaks over the last five years, renewable energy apart from hydropower has only been able to generate 2 percent of the nation's electricity.

Jeffords responded that oil, gas and nuclear companies have received more than $11 billion in tax breaks that have helped them dominate the energy markets.

Murkowski also said the amount of land needed to develop a wind farm or solar panel generator leaves a "footprint" that would degrade the environment, but would yield only a fraction of the energy as the same space needed to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"(The 20-percent standard) is impractical and unrealistic," Murkowski said.

Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., supported Jeffords. He said cleaner burning electricity would more than make up for the added land use.

"I'd love to see us do more," Wellstone said, but later conceded there was not enough support in the Senate to take such an aggressive stance on renewables.