Renewable Energy Standard Is Achievable and Affordable
An analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists concludes that consumers’ energy costs would actually be lower under the “25 percent by 2025” renewable energy standard.
April 29, 2009
From the Union of Concerned Scientists
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Under a 25-percent renewable energy standard, electricity prices would be as much as 7.6 percent lower between 2010 and 2030, according to a new analysis. The standard would also create 297,000 new domestic jobs and generate $13.5 billion in new income for farmers and rural landowners.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released an analysis this week concluding that increasing the nation’s reliance on renewable energy to 25 percent by 2025 is affordable and achievable, despite its pessimistic assumptions for many renewable energy technologies. The study also projects that, through 2030, any impact on ratepayers’ cumulative electric and natural gas bills would range from a marginal cost of $8.4 billion (0.2 percent) to a slight savings of $2.5 billion (0.1 percent).
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“For more than a decade, the federal government’s own number crunchers have repeatedly found that increasing our nation’s renewable energy usage is entirely feasible and would have little to no effect on consumers. And in many scenarios, consumers would actually save a bit,” says Jeff Deyette, an analyst in the Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). “Policies that spur more wind turbine construction, establish new markets for agricultural and forestry wastes, and create new manufacturing jobs can keep more money in our wallets, too.”
The study, conducted by DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), analyzed the proposal for the 25-percent renewable electricity standard that was included in the draft American Clean Energy and Security Act, a comprehensive energy and climate bill that would reduce the heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming. Next month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a version of the bill, which is likely to include a number of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in addition to a renewable electricity standard.
UCS contends that EIA made overly pessimistic assumptions about the cost and performance of most renewable energy technologies. In particular, the government analysis shows that bioenergy sources would account for nearly all of the additional renewable energy developed under the national standard. In contrast with earlier studies, the EIA analysis shows wind power providing very little additional power, although the wind industry last year broke previous growth records and the DOE itself released a report in 2008 that concluded wind power could affordably provide 20 percent of the nation's electricity by 2030. Despite these incongruities, the new EIA analysis still found that the renewable energy requirement would have a minimal economic impact on energy consumers. Slightly higher electricity prices projections in some years would be largely offset by reduced demand for — and price of — natural gas and coal.
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