“The reason for Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) is renewables are more expensive. No one would choose them if it wasn’t required.” This opinion was expressed by Steve Michel, Chief Counsel for Western Resource Advocates’ (WRA) Energy Program, during a hearing held in New Mexico. A stated goal of WRA is to “advance clean energy to reduce pollution and global climate change” and the specific goal of the Energy Program is, “to promote sustainable energy technologies—such as solar and wind power.”
 
An avowed supporter and proponent of “renewables” admits there needs to be regulation to force renewable use because they are “more expensive.” This should be alarming to all energy users, to all Americans.
 
At a time when the American is in an economic war, we do not need any intentional cost increases—especially when they can easily be avoided. But this is exactly what Senator Bingaman, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is proposing with his newly introduced Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010, which will make a 15 percent Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) the federal law.
 
The RES, or RPS, is a standard that is currently set on a state-by-state basis. It requires that a certain percentage of electricity be generated by renewable sources—namely wind and solar—by a specified date. For example, California set a goal of having 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, and certain organizations there are pushing for 33 percent by 2020—most other states have goals that match the year: 10% by 2010, 15% by 2015 and 20% by 2020.
 
Thirty states currently have mandatory renewable regulations. According to an Emerging Energy Research market study, few states are on track to meet their goals. California’s Proposition 23, being voted on this fall -- and supported by Senate candidate Carly Fiorina as being necessary to protect the state's economy, requires the state to abandon increased renewable energy requirements until California's unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters. Current unemployment is around 12 percent. Polls show Proposition 23 is likely to pass.
 
While few states are able to meet their own goals and California is voting on repealing its goal, Senator Bingaman is forging ahead with a national regulation that, according to Reuters, he plans to make a “reality during the lame-duck session after the mid-term election.” Some level of RES or RPS has been included in many previous bills that have failed to pass, and now advocates of this measure think they will slip it through in a lame-duck session -- indicative of the fact that they know it would not pass if Senators had to face voters after voting on it.
 
Senator Bingaman should know better. In his home state of New Mexico, the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) rejected the public utilities’ original plan to meet the state’s renewable energy requirements because they “cost the public too much.” In a 180-plus-page report, the high costs were determined to be “not in the public interest.” The Attorney General’s office stated that ratepayers would be forced to absorb the increases. An editorial in the Albuquerque Journal, the state’s largest newspaper, said, “It all comes down to how much the rest of us should pay to subsidize solar energy.” The PRC approved a scaled-back plan that would only increases ratepayers’ costs by 2 percent instead of the original 4 percent.
 
Hailed as essential for the security and future of America, the Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010 will raise costs and does nothing about America’s security or future. The idea that renewable energy will help America’s security implies that it’s the only way to stop buying foreign oil—which is totally false. Within North America, there is an abundance of energy resources. We do not have an energy shortage; we have an access shortage.
 
The Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010 plays into Obama’s expanding-federal-control agenda. As Forbes Magazine states, “Obama believes the West uses a disproportionate share of the world’s energy resources.” He wants America to have less and other countries to have more. It “has little to do with whether the planet is getting warmer or cooler, it is simply a way to penalize, and therefore reduce, America’s carbon consumption.” And, America’s economy.
 
Energy makes America great! We want more energy, not less; cheaper, not “more expensive.” Tell Senator Bingaman, and your Senators, to put America first and not raise energy costs! If America wants to retain its exceptional place in world history, we must be competitive.