Contents

1. Summary
2. Washington Passes Its First Renewable Energy Standard
3. Arizona Increases Its Renewable Energy Standard
4. California Requires Cleaner Electricity
5. UCS Prepares to Help Pass the Federal Renewable Energy Standard

Summary

Thanks to UCS activists, in November we helped score renewable energy victories in both Washington and Arizona. In California, activists helped pass a landmark law requiring new power plants to meet a minimum global warming pollution standard. In 2007, UCS will leverage these state victories to push the new Congress to pass a federal renewable electricity standard.

Washington Passes Its First Renewable Energy Standard 

Washington will be generating more clean, renewable energy thanks to an effective coalition, the support of UCS, and the help of our Washington activists. On November 6, Washington voters passed the Clean Energy Initiative (I-937) by a 52-48 percent margin.  

Washington becomes the 21st state (plus DC) to adopt a renewable electricity standard (RES), and the second state to do so via a ballot initiative. The new RES requires the state's largest utilities to reach 15 percent renewable energy use by 2015. It also requires electric utilities to pursue low-cost energy conservation opportunities with their customers and in their communities. Based on our analysis, the successful implementation of I-937 would, by 2025, keep about 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere each year—equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the road.

UCS and our activists can claim a large role in the success of I-937. We actively participated in the policy-making, helping to draft the initiative and steering committees. We also contributed to the campaign, and were instrumental in helping the campaign raise additional funds. Finally, we completed and released an analysis showing the economic and environmental benefits of the initiative, which we featured in an ad supporting the initiative that ran in the Seattle metropolitan area for one full week leading up to the election. UCS activists collected signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and then built support for the initiative prior to the vote.

Arizona Increases Its Renewable Energy Standard

In Arizona, the Corporation Commission raised their renewable energy standard (RES) to 15 percent by 2025, up from its original 1.1 percent by 2007 requirement. After more than two years of regulatory proceedings, the Arizona Corporate Commission (ACC) voted 4-1 in favor of increasing its RES, making Arizona the ninth state to go back and increase/strengthen its renewable energy requirement. The increased requirement will support an additional 3,200 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy capacity, with up to 30 percent of that amount set-aside for solar energy. It will also reduce annual CO2 emissions by about 8 million metric tons by 2025.

In the past couple of years, UCS played a supportive role as part of a larger coalition in this effort, including submitting several rounds of regulatory comments. UCS activists were credited by coalition leaders as submitting far more petition signatures than from any other coalition group—nearly 600.

California Requires Cleaner Electricity

In California, the state legislature passed and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark law (SB 1368 - Perata) that requires new power plants and most new contracts for electricity in California to meet a minimum global warming pollution performance standard. This standard will eventually reduce the amount of electricity from dirty sources that is generated in or imported into the state for California customers. With California leading the way, laws such as this one could help discourage the building of dirty coal-fired power plants and encourage the greater use of more climate-friendly sources of electricity generation.  Another new law actively supported by UCS (SB 107 – Simitian) will speed up implementation of the 20 percent renewable electricity standard for California’s largest utilities, as well as require all utilities to take into account carbon emissions when developing their long term plans.

UCS activists and staff played an important role in moving each of these legislative initiatives forward. Staff and activists met with and wrote letters to key legislators and worked with the sponsors of the legislation to get these bills out of the legislature and to the governor's desk. We are now working with our allies to ensure that the laws are properly implemented. 

UCS Prepares to Help Pass the Federal Renewable Energy Standard 

Since energy issues were trumpeted by so many newly-elected members of Congress, and with new leadership in the House, UCS and other renewable energy advocates are expecting increased federal leadership from the 110th Congress. As part of an exciting groundswell of support for renewable energy, UCS is gearing up to help lead the charge to pass the federal renewable energy standard.

The federal renewable energy standard, as many UCS activists will remember, passed the Senate three times, only to fail in the House. Now, with more support for renewables, we are more hopeful than ever that the House will pass the bill.

In Washington, UCS staff will help guide strategy and lead the national coalition. Around the country, and especially in key congressional districts, UCS activists will play a critical role in the campaign, contacting their representatives to urge them to support the bill first in the Senate and then in the House. Look for alerts on this issue later this year.