RPS

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.

If Florida embraced its solar and wind power potential and got 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020, it would create 37,000 new jobs, generate more than $16 billion in economic activity by 2025, and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 319 million tons, a new study commissioned by the state Department of Environmental Protection shows.

The just-released report examined 28 policy measures in Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's 2008 Climate Action Plan, including the 20 percent by 2020 renewable electricity standard.

In all, it found that implementing the full Climate Action Plan could add almost 150,000 new jobs and bring almost $40 billion in increased economic activity to the Sunshine state.

Unfortunately, the Florida legislature undermined the governor's efforts to turn that renewable energy standard into law this spring during what longtime observers of the statehouse said was one of the most dysfunctional and depressing legislative sessions in memory.

The new report reveals just how much economic opportunity was squandered by recalcitrant lawmakers, even as they faced a $6 billion budget deficit.

After that astonishing lapse of legislative judgment, the governor's office is now shifting to Plan B: It hopes to tap into the billions of federal stimulus dollars that are being made available to state energy offices around the country.

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.

Ever since the economic crisis hit, lawmakers and businesses have been paralyzed by the fear that if they try to tackle environmental problems more jobs will be lost.

If they step back and analyze the situation, though, they will discover a very different reality.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit science advocacy group, recently released a report on the potential impact of establishing national renewable electricity standards. It found that requiring U.S. utilities to obtain 25 percent of their energy from renewable sources would create 297,000 jobs in the next 15 years.

That’s three times as many jobs as are necessary to produce an equivalent amount of electricity from fossil fuels. The net benefit would be 202,000 new jobs by 2025.

For a sneak peek at where a U.S. energy revolution could be going, keep an eye on Michigan. That's right, rust-belt Michigan. In the same financially struggling state where the Big Three automakers are kings, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is nurturing a microcosm of the green economic development President Obama envisions for the nation.

Granholm, an Obama advisor, described her clean energy vision for Michigan’s immediate future in her State of the State Address last night.

If she succeeds, she could turn chilly Michigan into one of the most energy efficient and renewable energy-reliant states in the nation. In the process, her plan could create tens of thousands of jobs, expand the tax base and begin to resurrect Detroit. Her target is this:

By the year 2020, Michigan will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity by 45 percent. We will do it through increased renewable energy, gains in energy efficiency and other new technologies. Instead of spending nearly $2 billion a year importing coal or natural gas from other states, we’ll be spending our energy dollars on Michigan wind turbines, Michigan solar panels, Michigan energy-efficiency devices, all designed, manufactured and installed by Michigan workers.

The state’s aggressive tax incentives for renewable energy production have already started drawing wind and solar enterprises to Michigan. The next step in Granholm's plan is to ignite a powerful new market for those Michigan-made products.

The state could do that, she said, by: