White House, Job Creation Keys to a Stronger Renewable Energy Standard

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama advocated for a renewable electricity standard that would require utilities to obtain 25% of their power from renewable resources by 2025.

By the time the climate bill got through the U.S. House, though, the RES had been watered down to 20% by 2020, with loopholes allowing states to get away with as little as 12%, and even less if they can make carbon capture technology work. Several independent analyses and the EPA have concluded that such a tepid law would spur about as much growth in renewable energy as no federal law at all.

Now, the climate ball is in the Senate’s court, and industry, environmental and trade groups are digging in in an attempt to resuscitate the RES to its full potential as a force that can shift the energy industry's focus from coal to wind, solar and other renewable sources.

“Right now, as written, the House bill is below business as usual,” says Marchant Wentworth, Washington representative for clean energy for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“It’s below the level of renewables that you would get from just the state renewable electricity standards that are now in place and the additional renewables deployment that was put in place as part of the stimulus package. Those two things yield a certain percentage, probably about 9.3 or 9.4 percent, and the House bill comes in at 8.8 percent percent.”

Wentworth sees potential for support for a stronger standard emerging from the Senate, with 60 Democrats in the chamber and Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins likely on board.

The challenge, just like in the House, will be securing the votes of enough Democrats from rural and Southern states that rely heavily on coal power. Supporters have their eye on about 15 Democrats who could tip the scale — and who are likely to demand more industry concessions for their votes, concessions that won’t include a stronger RES. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee already offered a weaker version — 15% by 2021 — accompanied by more off-shore oil drilling.

The key to restoring the renewable electricity standard may be getting the White House to flex some muscle, advocates say.

In this case, the president has an increasingly good reason to beef up the standard: his promise to America to provide millions of new, green jobs to turn around the economy. Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged over the weekend that the economic crises was worse than anticipated, with unemployment at 9.5 percent, and he promised: “The second hundred days, you’re going to see a lot more jobs created.”

A stronger RES and energy efficiency requirements can create green jobs right away, and save consumers money, Wentworth says. A Union of Concerned Scientists study in March found that a 25% by 2025 RES would create almost 300,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, construction, maintenance, agriculture, forestry and other sectors, plus add $263 billion in investments in new technology.

“It’s the cheapest, quickest, easiest way — combined with energy efficiency — to get your trifecta. The trifecta is, you create jobs, save consumers money and then there’s this little thing called climate change,” Wentworth says.

Most advocates lobbying Capitol Hill for a stronger RES are keeping their strategies close to the vest, but groups like the newly formed RES-Alliance for Jobs, backed by 22 renewable energy companies and associations, are already hitting the Washington airwaves and publications with ads spelling out how much the country could benefit from a stronger standard.

The proposed federal RES could be strengthened in several ways, with the most obvious improvement being strengthening of the bill's renewable energy targets and ramp-up.