What is renewable energy?

“Renewable energy” is energy from sources that are continually replenished by nature. This includes the sun (solar power), the wind (wind power), plants and animal wastes (biopower), heat from the earth (geothermal power), and moving water (hydroelectric or hydrokinetic power). Other sources, like fossil and nuclear fuels, were created over hundreds of millions of years, and are finite in supply.

What is the Renewable Electricity Standard?

A renewable electricity standard (RES) requires electric utilities to generate a minimum percentage of their electricity from clean, renewable resources. Establishing a strong federal standard for renewable energy is essential to meeting some of our nation’s most serious environmental and economic challenges. A national RES provides clear policy direction to our nation’s energy producers that America needs renewable energy. By creating a long-term, stable market for renewable energy, the RES allows investors and entrepreneurs to commit to new technologies that are market ready, or nearly so. This commitment will help ensure that we are developing the technologies we need to meet our goal of addressing global warming.

Where has the RES been adopted?

Already, 28 states and the District of Columbia have adopted individual RES programs, and now it is time for Congress to enact national RES legislation in order to help American realize its full renewable electricity potential.

How effective is the RES?

The RES, combined with federal tax credits, has been the primary policy driver for renewable energy in the U.S. These policies have resulted in growth rates for wind and solar technologies in excess of 25% per year. The 28 state standards in place now are expected to deliver over 55,000 megawatts, or $___ billion of capital investment by 2020, amounting to about 9 percent of U.S. power demand. Research shows that states with an RES in place produce fewer emissions of health-threatening pollutants, spur local manufacturing and local green jobs, and account for more than 75 percent of America’s renewable energy generating capacity.

If so many states have adopted it, why do we need a national standard?

A national RES will help level the playing field and provide the long-term national commitment that is needed to spur tens of billions of dollars in clean energy investment and create hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs. Because many renewable resources are located in remote areas, rural America will experience an especially important economic boost.

At a time when Americans are increasingly concerned about energy imports and volatile energy prices, a national RES will diversify our sources of electric generation and make America more self-reliant.

Why do we need to mandate the use of renewable energy? Shouldn’t we leave it up to the market to decide?

We need to mandate the use of renewable energy for two reasons. First, it is urgent that we have a cleaner, more diverse, and domestic energy supply. Emissions from fossil fuels are causing global warming and other environmental problems. Money we send abroad to import oil is weakening the U.S. economy, losing U.S. jobs, and funding “both sides in the war on terror.” We can’t wait for prices to rise high enough and long enough for entrepreneurs to take the risk of investing in new energy sources.

Second, electricity is not a free market in the same way that other consumer goods are. In most parts of the country, utilities are monopolies, regulated by government commissions. Consumers cannot choose their supplier or where their power comes from. The real “consumers” in this market are a handful of utility executives and regulators. And despite overwhelming public support and desire for renewables, these “consumers” have not chosen renewable energy. In many states, the legislature has acted on behalf of the public and told the utilities to buy renewable energy. Congress can do the same thing on a national level.

If we are going to have a carbon cap, why do we need an RES?

Renewable energy investments can help lower the cost of electricity under cap-and trade legislation, saving consumers money. Utilities have many ways of producing power, and coal is the most carbon intensive. If a carbon cap forces them to run their coal plants less, the easiest option will be to run their existing natural gas plants more. This higher demand for natural gas will increase the price of natural gas across the economy, for space heating, industrial heat, and chemical and fertilizer feedstocks. Analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy has shown that a national RES would cause many utilities to switch from gas to renewables, thus driving down demand for gas. This would reduce pressure on natural gas supplies under a carbon cap, allowing utilities to switch from coal to gas.

For more information on the role of sectoral policies under a carbon cap, see Three Pillars: A Comprehensive Approach to Setting Clean Energy Standards for the Electricity Sector by the Energy Future Coalition.

What will an RES do my utility bill?

Renewable energy delivers multiple benefits to consumers.

First, it reduces demand from power plants that run on natural gas, thus lowering the price of natural gas across the economy. This lowers costs for big industrial users of natural gas who make fertilizer, chemicals, plastics, and a host of other products. It also lowers costs for consumers like you, who use natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking. The federal Energy Information Administration has found that a 25 percent RES would drive down natural gas prices enough to make up for the slightly higher cost of power from renewables. Independent analysis has found that power prices would also decline by 7.6 percent, by lowering the prices for natural gas and coal as generation fuels. As a result, cumulative electricity and natural gas savings for consumers in all sectors of the economy would reach $64.3 billion by 2025 and would grow to $95.5 billion by 2030.

Second, by diversifying our electric supply, it reduces exposure to price swings from fossil fuels. Oil, natural gas, and coal prices have seen huge price increases in recent years. Renewables, most of which use free fuels like the wind, the sun, moving water, and heat from the earth, have steady and predictable prices. Many utilities are including renewables in their supply portfolio as a way to hedge against other more volatile supplies.

Lastly, renewable energy helps individual consumers save money by generating their own power. Thousands of businesses and homeowners have solar panels and small wind turbines now, and the rate of growth is increasing. These distributed generators increase the reliability of the grid, reduce air pollution, and create jobs in local communities.

What will the RES do to the U.S. economy?

Renewable energy is good for the economy. It is a domestic source of energy, so it reduces imports of fossil fuels, it keeps American dollars in America, and it creates American jobs.

How many jobs? Estimates vary, but a new analysis of a 25% Renewable Electricity Standard concludes that it could create almost 300,000 new jobs. Other studies looking beyond renewable energy find the potential for up to 3 million "green collar" jobs.

Some studies go into detail about what kinds of jobs and where. For example, building a wind turbine is very much like building a tractor or a truck. There are 8000 parts in a wind turbine, things like ball bearings, copper wire, and electronic controls. These components are made by traditional small manufacturing companies, like Cardinal Fastener in Cleveland, that have been losing jobs to foreign markets. By supplying emerging high-tech industries, like renewable energy, we have a chance to re-industrialize America, creating new jobs.

What will the RES do for rural America?

Renewable energy is rural energy. As President Obama said in his inaugural address, "We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories."

Renewable energy is also big business. A report from the National Farmers Union pointed out that cash receipts for all of agriculture in 2006 were $236 billion. Electricity sales were $330 billion that year. Put the two together: rural energy + big business = a huge business opportunity for rural America.

Farmers, ranchers, foresters, and rural communities can benefit in a number of ways. They can earn royalties for the use of their land, or invest in renewable power projects themselves. They can sell commodities -- "energy crops" -- to power plants. And they can reap the tax benefits of these capital-intensive technologies to help pay for schools, roads, and health services.

What are the environmental benefits of an RES?

Electricity production is one of the most damaging of human activities. From mining and drilling through air and water pollution, conventional power sources create problems throughout their life cycle. Energy production can damage human health, harm fish and wildlife, destroy habitat, and biggest of all, even change the Earth's climate.

The impacts of renewable energy are minor in comparison. Wind, solar, and hydropower have no emissions at all, and geothermal emissions are small. Biomass power, typically produced from burning wood, can cause particulate emissions if not controlled, but is carbon neutral, with the carbon dioxide from the smoke being absorbed by new trees as they grow.

Renewables also use very little or no water, compared to fossil and nuclear plants, who in aggregate account for the second largest use of water in the US after agriculture. And renewables have few or no waste products, unlike nuclear power's radioactive waste and coal's toxic sludge.

And, according to EPA, the process of generating electricity is the single largest source of global warming emissions in the United States, representing 41 percent of all CO2 emissions. Most of these power sector emissions come from coal combustion. Renewable energy is a key solution to global warming.

A 25 percent national RES would lower power plant CO2 emissions 277 million metric tons annually by 2025 (more than 2 percent below 2007 levels and 10.6 percent below business as usual)—the equivalent of the annual output from 70 typical (600 MW) new coal plants or taking 45.3 million cars off the road.