RES

The Obama administration's federal stimulus package propelled the geothermal and solar energy industries to record growth in 2009 while most of the economy struggled.

But industry anxiety is rising over the lack of a long-term policy signal from Washington. This week, trade groups again warned lawmakers that relying solely on short-term support to boost clean energy could eventually sink their industries.

As part of the push, the groups called on U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to keep his word to unleash the torrent of solar and geothermal projects proposed for America's public lands.

A federal mandate for renewable electricity could ensure U.S. competitiveness with China on clean fuels and create thousands of home-grown jobs by wooing manufacturers that have been turned off by America's unsteady support for the industry, according to a new study commissioned by an alliance of 19 energy firms and trade groups.

"China is absolutely killing us," said Don Furman, a senior vice president for wind energy company Iberdrola Renewables, a member of the RES alliance.

"America owned this industry 20 years ago," he told reporters. "And we have given it away because we haven't had a coherent national policy supporting renewables."

A renewable electricity standard (RES) would force utilities to get more renewable power on the grid.

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.

By the middle of next year, the nine campuses that make up the nation's largest community college system plan to be completely energy self-sufficient.

It's a huge step, and it will begin saving money immediately.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) started down this path in 2001, the year voters approved the first part of $5.7 billion in bond funding to renovate the campuses.

The LACCD Board of Trustees was thinking about much-needed modernization work and its first new construction in 35 years, but it was also thinking ahead. It passed a sustainable building policy mandating that all new buildings that use 50% or more of bond funding be LEED certified. The board had previously developed a renewable energy plan that aimed for a minimum 10% renewable energy standard.

At the time, the trustees were afraid that anything beyond that would be too costly, says Larry Eisenberg, executive director of Facilities, Planning and Development for the LACCD.

The system's chancellor and the implementation team saw greater potential, though.

They looked at the campuses' energy costs – around $9 million a year, growing to $10 million by 2010 – and realized that ramping up renewable power would be a money-saving move. The chancellor at the time, Darroch “Rocky” Young, adopted the 100% renewable energy goal as a budgetary measure.

“What began as an environmental policy turned into a budget initiative,” Eisenberg says, “and that’s where it’s been ever since.”

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• Leslie Berliant's blog
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The climate bill under discussion in U.S. House would require electric utilities to draw an increasing amount of power from renewable sources, spurring growth of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy and reducing carbon emissions.

Opponents argue that it would raise consumer's electricity prices too high. But is that true?

The question is critical to whether a final bill contains a Renewable Electricity Standard mandating that retail electric utilities generate 25% of their power from renewable sources by 2025.

The answer, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, is no.