Industry Makes Case for a Strong National Renewable Electricity Standard

A diverse group of renewable energy companies and industry associations came together on Feb. 4 in Washington, D.C. to press the case for a strong national renewable electricity standard, or RES. We all know that utilizing our abundant domestic renewable energy sources provides important environmental and energy security benefits, but this group was there to highlight the jobs benefit of greater renewables deployment.

The press event was sponsored by the RES Alliance for Jobs, a coalition of businesses and organizations that support Congressional enactment of a strong federal RES. The group was touting a report – conducted by Navigant Consulting, Inc. – showing that a national RES will support an additional 274,000 renewable energy jobs over a no-national policy option and that these jobs will occur broadly across the nation.

While 29 states and the District of Columbia have adopted renewable portfolio standards (although the targets vary widely) and thus are already reaping jobs benefits, large swaths of the U.S. have not acted. The study found that without stronger near-term targets, some renewable energy industries will stagnate or even decline.

A central message from the group was that long-term comprehensive policy creates the demand needed to retain and grow our domestic renewables industries and manufacturing and that the lack of policy risks losing these industries.

Don Furman, senior vice president at Iberdrola Renewables noted that “America owned the wind industry” 20 years ago but that we have “given it away” because of the lack of policy. He added that a key appeal of a RES is that it is a market-based policy that allows states and regions to respond with the most advantageous mix of resources.

Applied Materials executive Charlie Gay emphasized the need for “long-term, consistent policy” to build domestic markets that will allow industry to create the scale of manufacturing that leads to “predictability of cost reduction.”

The RES Alliance report adds to the growing list of studies showing that without supportive policies, the U.S. will be left behind by other countries that are prepared to outspend us to win the “clean energy race.” The risk of inaction is that we will add a new dependence on renewable energy equipment imports to our current dependence on foreign oil.