|
Details of the May 21 Public Hearing Thanks to everyone for their support for the Renewable Portfolio Standard (Bill 15-0747) Hearing which was held on Friday June 21st, 2004 (written testimonies where accepted until June 4th). Our campaign has moved on but there is still lots of work and effort needed to succeed. Mark-up date for the bill will soon be set and we hope to count with your support for that, Please take a minute to send a letter to DC Councilmembers asking them to support the bill. HEARING HIGHLIGHTS As a general comment, the testimonies were very much in favor of supporting the development and use of clean energy in the DC area. A wide range of organizations expressed their opinions including: DC public offices:
Energy Industries:
Businesses
Community Organizations:
Environmental Organizations and Coalitions:
Others:
To provide you with some insight of what happened during the hearing, we have selected testimonies’ extracts that show the diversity of concerns, arguments, recommendations, etc. Extracts have been arranged according to relevant issues. Cost issues: “Business does better when consumers’ quality of life improves. A clear show of support for green energy supplies will stabilize the price of fossil fuels commodities like oil, coal, and natural gas. The less demand there is for fossil fuels, the less the price of fossil fuels will rise. Also, fossil fuels being a smaller part of the overall DC energy portfolio mean businesses and residents will be les likely to experience large price spikes for fossil fuels suppliers. Businesses benefit by having some long term certainty in electricity cost projections” “In 2003, we contracted to purchase 24 million kilowatt hours of green energy from Pepco Energy Services. That purchase equates to 50% of our DC office space being powered by renewable energy. Our case demonstrates that buying renewable energy and running profitable businesses are very compatible”……….., The Tower Companies “Most restaurant are energy intensive because of the way they operate. Ours are no exception. But, instead of this causing to oppose the bill, it causes to support it. Why? Because we know, as any good stock broker will tell you, that it is better to have a diverse portfolio than an homogeneous portfolio, In the case of electricity that means having our electricity come fro more sources than just fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear power. Adding wind, landfill gas, biomass and other sources to our energy mix will stabilize our electricity prices to protect our restaurants from the wilds price fluctuations that come with volatile natural gas-fired energy”, Restaurant Nora/Asia Nora “A Renewable Portfolio Standard provides a long-term demand signal to markets that is needed to get new renewables capacity built in a competitive environment that is focused on short-term performance. It is very difficult to get the long-term financing required to build capital-intensive renewables energy projects like wind when demand is typically short-term. A well-crafted RPS does not need to be in conflict with voluntary markets”, Clipper Windpower, Inc. “Because up-front capital cost for renewables are relatively high, getting affordable financing remains the key component of implementing any new project. Lon-term contracts provide the vital signal that a revenue stream will be available to the projects over the life of the financing package”, Union of Concerned Scientists “The RPS will reduce renewable energy cost by: (a) providing a revenue stream that will enable manufacturers and developers to obtain project financing at a reasonable cost and make investments in expanding capacity to meet an expanding renewables energy market, (b) allowing economies of scale in manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy facilities, (c) promoting vigorous competition among renewables energy developers and technologies to meet the standard at the lowest cost, (d) inducing development of renewables in the region where they are the most cost effective, while avoiding expensive long-distance transmission, (e) reducing transaction costs, by enabling suppliers to buy credits an avoid having to negotiate many small contracts with individual renewable energy projects”, Union of Concerned Scientists “For utilities, solar energy reduces load during the middle of the day –the sun shines brightest just when demand is the highest”, Solar Energy Industries Associations Job issues: “Data from proposed and actual wind projects from around the US collected by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that wind jobs actually generated by projects ranges from 0.4 to 1.7 jobs per megawatt of wind power installed”, Union of Concerned Scientists Dependence on Fossil Fuel issues: “Passage of, or even debate over, an RPS is a tremendous tool for raising the awareness of the public about the huge impacts of our current energy supply”, Clipper Windpower, Inc. “This legislation is a key component to cleaning up out region’s air, making a contribution in reducing global climate change, improving the health of the DC citizens, and creating well paying jobs in the region”, DC Sierra Club “The deleterious effects of burning fossil fuels are well documented. Sulfur oxides results as an air pollutant from burning coal to produce electricity and are the primary cause of acid rain. Nitrogen oxides from producing electricity and transportation combine with other chemicals to produce ground-level ozone, or smog. The infamous carbon dioxide, also a by-product of burning fossil fuels for both electricity and transportation, is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, and contributing to global warming. Even aside from the pollution, negative public health effects, and not to mention the current global political climate, the fact is that fossil fuels are a limited resource. There is only so much, and we must begin to come to terms with the finite nature of many of the resources we have taken for granted for so long”, Georgetown University Law Center “Currently, our nation’s capitol is part of the continued environmental destruction associated with a shortsighted national energy policy – one that depends disproportionately on coal. According to the US Energy Information Administration, 50% of our nation’s electricity came from coal in 2002. Moreover, when projecting future dependence on coal in the electricity sector, EIA estimates at least 50% dependence on coal for the next 20years.” “Any responsible energy portfolio should account for all the negative impacts associated with the production o that energy. While coal producers and coal-fired power plant generators will pay lip service and heavy marketing fees to try to sell decision makers and the public on Clean Coal technology, no amount of PR about air pollution control can hide coal’s dirty little secret. The environmental devastation associated with dependence on electricity from coal begins long before anything comes out of the smokestack. With Mountaintop Removal coal mining, the devastation begins as soon as the coal comes out of the ground.” “In the destructive process of Mountaintop Removal, entire peaks, hillsides, and mountaintops are literally blown off in order to reach the coal seams that lie underneath. The resulting millions of tons of waste rock, dirt, and vegetation are then dumped into the neighboring valleys and streams. These valley-fills bury streams and aquatic habitat under piles of rubble hundreds of feet high, destroying the entire surrounding ecosystem and disrupting nearby communities. Government studies have found that Mountaintop Removal mining, not surprisingly, has done irreparable damage to the environment – over 1200 miles o streams have been damaged or destroyed, and pre-mining forest conditions, including impacts to the wildlife they support, may not return for generations, if not thousand of years. If Mountaintop Removals continues without restrain, by the year 2020, an are 32 times the size of the District of Columbia will have been destroyed.” “We, who live in DC are not far from removed from the environmental harm associated with Mountaintop Removal. This is happening right here in our own watershed – in the headwaters of th Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay. We should not be sacrificing our water resources for energy needs that could be supplied by renewables”………., Earthjustice “Renewable energy can increase the reliability of the overall system, by diversifying our resource base and using supplies that are not vulnerable to periodic shortages or other supply interruption”, Union of Concerned Scientists “DC has two large electricity generating facilities Buzzard’s Point and Benning Road. They have a combined capacity of 806 MW. Both facilities are petroleum burning, peaking power plants. That means that the price of the generation goes up as the price of oil rises, as it has been doing right now. Because they are peak power plants, that means they come on line when demand for electricity hits a peak, usually in the summer. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are well suited for offsetting peak power load. So if you pass the renewable energy bill, it will mean that the two oil burning plants in the District will likely be used less”, The Clean Energy Partnership “We believe an RPS helps to level the playing field and helps to create a more diverse energy portfolio that helps to level our dependence on foreign energy sources and decreases emissions from both natural gas and coal, as well as lowers natural gas prices by alleviating the current shortage of natural gas”, Clipper Windpower, Inc. Renewable Energy Initiatives: “Pepco Energy Services strongly supports renewable energy. We are a leading provider of renewable energy in the mid-Atlantic region. We are developing new source of renewable generation. We have just completed construction of our first project, a one megawatt landfill gas generator in Fauquier County, Virginia”, Pepco Energy Services “WGES fully supports public policy that promotes renewable energy development in the District. Clean Air Partners, a public-private partnership chartered by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, awarded WGES the 2003 Clean Air Trendsetter Award for its innovative efforts in making new wind energy available to consumers in the region. In addition, WGES was awarded a two-year green energy contract led by the Montgomery County government in Maryland”, Washington Gas Energy Services Renewables vs. Fossil Fuels: Voluntary vs. non-voluntary use of renewable energy: “Voluntary programs are not enough. Green marketing is not a substitute for sound public policy, however. With green electricity, the benefits of any individual customer’s choice accrue to everyone, not the individual customer. Green customers get the same undifferentiated electrons and breathe the same air as their neighbors choosing to buy power from cheap, dirty coal plants, creating a strong incentive for people to be “free-rider” rather than pay higher costs for renewable sources”, Union of Concerned Scientists Observations, Concerns and Recommendations: “The proposed legislation selects a favored generation source at the expense of consumers and competition”, referring to solar carve-out in the bill “We also have concern on the limits that are put on municipal solid waste. By limiting the use of municipal waste, the legislation again limits customers choice” “We believe that this legislation is not necessary at this time. However, if the Council believes that it is in the public interest to have a renewable portfolio standard in the District, we would urge the Council to consider mirroring the requirement in Maryland”…………, Pepco Energy Services “There is already a competitive retail market for clean energy in the District. This should continue to be encouraged and supported as a public policy objective” “Eliminate solar energy carve-out, and leave it as part of the renewables pool ” “Reexamine the overall renewable energy targets based on realistic estimates of what is feasible for the District” “Abandon the development of tracking and trading systems” “…WGES urges no action on the bill and in the alternative amend the legislation……” ……………, Washington Gas Energy Services “Thirteen states have enacted similar pieces of legislation. While the requirements for the various states vary from state to state, the requirements in this bill fall roughly in the mid range between the Wisconsin requirement of that would require retailers achieve a 2.2 percent renewables by the 2011 and California that requires 20 percent by 2017” “According to a February 2002 study conducted by Energy Information administration, a national renewable electricity standard would provide 10 percent of US electricity from wind, solar, geothermal and bioenergy by 2020 would virtually have no impact on electricity prices and could save energy consumers as much as #13.2 billion” “Renewable energy can enhance our energy security. James Woolsey, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Robert McFarlane, President Reagan’s former national security advisor, and Admiral Thomas Moorer, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, together wrote Congressional leaders in September 2001 urging enactment of minimum standards for renewables fuels and electricity along with an increase in energy efficiency funding, in order to increase national security”……………., Union of Concerned Scientists Note:
|
