Washington, DC: Today the House of Representatives
voted 241 to 172 to pass “The New Direction for Energy
Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act” (H.R. 3221),
including an amendment to establish a national Renewable Electricity Standard
(RES). The passage of the RES along with the package of legislation included in
H.R. 3221 will make significant steps toward a cleaner and more secure energy
future for the United States.
“We applaud today’s clean energy breakthrough in the U.S.
Congress,” said Jennette Gayer, Policy Advocate with Environment Georgia.
“The House of Representatives improved a good energy bill by adding a 15%
renewable electricity standard that will dramatically increase clean renewable
power in this country,” continued Gayer.
Despite massive opposition by coal-fired utility companies
and their allies, a broad coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, farm
groups, clean energy developers and investors, was able to pass the RES
amendment 220 to190.
H.R. 3221 would require that utilities generate 15% of their
electricity from renewable energy such as wind, solar, or biomass, or through
energy efficiency savings by 2020. The
amendment was offered by Representatives Udall (NM), Rodriguez (TX), and Platts
(PA) and others. Specifically the RES:
- requires that utilities generate a gradually
increasing amount of their electric generation from renewable energy sources
including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, starting in 2010.
-
establishes a national system for trading
renewable energy credits.
- allows up to 27% of their targeted requirement
through energy efficiency savings (the equivalent of up to 4% of the 15%
requirement).
Other important provisions in
the bill include:
- The Natural
Resources Title (Title VII) which will take important steps toward restoring
sound stewardship to the management of our public lands, ensuring
responsible domestic energy development, developing alternative energy
sources, and helping America’s
fish and wildlife, public lands, coasts, and oceans adapt to global
warming.
- Title IX
sets aggressive targets for strengthening state building energy efficiency
codes, adopts beneficial reforms to Department of Energy (DOE) authority
to issue energy efficiency standards for appliance and equipment products,
and establishes new efficiency standards for products such as light bulbs,
dishwashers and clothes washers.
Missing from the legislation considered today was an
improvement in fuel economy. The energy bill passed by the Senate in June
includes fuel economy provisions, which will be brought to conference with the
House bill.
“We applaud the
House for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy in this bill. We look forward to seeing Congress pass a
comprehensive energy bill that addresses energy efficiency, fuel economy and
renewable energy. We urge the Congress
to add the Senate –passed fuel economy provisions in the final bill,” said Gayer.
“We applaud Reps. Lewis and Johnson for supporting a renewable electricity
standard, its adoption will be a critical step toward a new energy future.”
