Contents

1. Summary
2. Activists Help Pass Historic House Energy Bill
3. Renewable Energy Standard Analysis
4. Utility Commits to Long-Term Wind Contracts, Model Green Power Program
5. Looking Ahead for the Fall

Summary

For the first time, the House passed an energy bill that requires utilities to acquire energy from clean, renewable sources like the wind, sun, the heat of the earth's core, or energy crops. Activists from UCS and other groups prevailed over intense utility lobbying to add the 15 percent renewable energy standard. UCS analysis showing the standard's economic and environmental benefits garnered wide media coverage. This fall, as the House and Senate iron out the differences between their energy bills, UCS will continue to engage our activists and do new analysis to make sure the final bill includes both a renewable energy standard as well as a significant increase in fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. In addition to helping pass the renewable standard, UCS also helped negotiate what we hope will become a model green energy program in the Northeast.

Activists Help Pass Historic House Energy Bill

UCS activists played a critical role in the House’s historic passage of a renewable electricity standard, sending their representatives more than twenty thousand emails and making hundreds of calls. If passed into law, the Udall-Platts-Gonzalez renewable electricity standard would require large, investor-owned utilities to acquire 15 percent of their power from clean, renewable sources like solar, wind or biomass by 2020. Because so many representatives were on the fence, and because utility lobbying was so intense, it was critical for constituents to contact their representatives in as many ways as possible. Beyond organizing activists to email, call, and meet with their legislators, UCS also participated in coordinated phone banking efforts with other environmental groups, generating thousands of calls to representatives’ offices. It worked. Capitol Hill staffers were impressed at the volume of calls coming in on renewable energy; in the hours before the vote, one representative’s staffer even confided that this kind of groundswell of support would be necessary to win her boss’ vote, and thanks to our field consultant, UCS got the calls in. We got that representative’s vote—and many others.

The 220-190 vote, stronger than many expected, reflects the public’s clear preference to reduce our dependence on dirty power and begin our transition to clean energy.

In the final negotiations, as a strategy to win more votes and increase our chance for victory, the bill’s authors lowered the original 20 percent requirement to 15 percent and added a provision allowing states to elect to meet about a quarter of their obligation through energy efficiency. UCS and the environmental community, while hoping to pass an even stronger bill, fully endorsed these changes. The 15 percent renewable electricity standard is a good first step towards an economy-wide climate change policy.

Renewable Energy Standard Analysis

UCS analysis shows that a 15 percent renewable standard would save consumers a total of more than $16 billion by the year 2020. The standard would also reduce global warming pollution as much as taking 29 million cars off the road in the year 2020 alone. UCS analyzed the economic and environmental benefits of a national renewable standard for twenty states and the nation as a whole, quantifying that over a hundred thousand jobs would be created, consumers would save billions on their electric and natural gas bills, and that carbon emissions would be reduced by the equivalent of taking millions of cars off the road.

Thanks in part to U.S. Public Interest Research Group holding press conferences in many states, our analysis gained wide coverage in newspapers and was even reported by some TV stations. As a follow up to the report release, UCS and our local allies visited with the editors of newspapers in over a dozen critical districts, which resulted in papers endorsing the renewable standard in NY, WI, TX, NJ and others.

Utility Commits to Long-Term Wind Contracts, Model Green Power Program

UCS Northeast Clean Energy Project Manager John Rogers recently led successful negotiations with a Boston-area utility to establish long-term commitments to wind energy and green power.

Under the program announced in August, NSTAR—which provides electricity to more than one-million customers in central and eastern Massachusetts—will benefit from 10-year contracts with wind farms in upstate New York and Maine. Long-term contracts are important for reducing the costs of meeting state renewable electricity standards and reducing wind developers’ financing costs. The contracts will also supply a new green power program, allowing customers to sign up to get all of their energy from wind. UCS and its negotiating partners ensured that the program’s design drew on best practices from green power experiences around the country.

Both the long-term contracts and the green power program set important precedents for other utilities in the Northeast and elsewhere to support renewable energy development, stabilize energy costs, and allow customers to choose green electricity. The program will begin in January 2008 and customers of NSTAR will be able to begin signing up this fall for 100 percent clean, wind power.