Southern Co. Takes Aim at Renewable Energy Bill

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=48469

Southern Company, by spending huge sums both on lobbying and on political campaigns, is among the biggest power players in Washington. The utility, which reported $14.4 billion in revenues in 2006, helped derail an administration plan to create a national electricity market three years ago.

Now Southern is targeting a high priority of a key Senate Democrat: requiring utilities to purchase a certain percentage of power from wind, solar, biomass and other renewable energy sources.

The fight over the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), authored by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), may be an early indicator of the great difficulties inherent in crafting a bill to curb global warming emissions.

An RPS would lower greenhouse gas emissions, although not to the extent contemplated by bills that specifically target global warming. It would also affect utilities and regions of the country differently, thereby setting up political fault lines based on geography as well as political affiliation, just like a climate-change bill would.

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edit: the Southern Company was an eager participant in Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, a major GOP and Bush/Cheney contributor and will be the recipient of billions in nuclear subsidies from the atrocious 2005 GOP "Energy Bill".

[Rydz777]

1. Interesting post. The Bingaman bill may or may not be

well drawn (because of regional differences), but the intent is solid. I think there should also be increased attention to repairing and redesigning our power grid. Bush has talked about energy independence for 6 years but it is always pie in the sky by and by. We need a serious "Manhattan Project" type effort accompanied by a sense of urgency.