Renewable Electricity Standard Would Save Consumers Billions in Utility Costs
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives would require utility companies to obtain 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, which would fight global warming while also cutting consumers’ electricity bills.
Feb. 26, 2009
From the Union of Concerned Scientists
Consumers could save as much as $94 billion on their electricity and natural gas bills by 2030 if Congress enacted the national renewable electricity standard recently introduced by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Todd R. Platts (R-Pa.). This projection is from a preliminary analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which used a modified version of the Department of Energy's National Electricity Modeling System for its analysis.
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The Markey-Platts bill (H.R. 890), introduced earlier this month, would require utilities to obtain 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, solar, bioenergy or geothermal, by 2025.
UCS' preliminary analysis of the 25-percent-by-2025 standard — unveiled Wednesday in Las Vegas at the nation's largest renewable energy conference — concluded that consumers across the country would benefit.
"There aren't winners and losers. All consumers would save, including those in the Southeast," said Alan Nogee, UCS' Clean Energy Program director. "Our analysis shows that ratepayers in the Southeast collectively would save more than $4.5 billion by 2025."
The UCS analysis is the latest in a long line of studies conducted over the last decade — including several by the federal government — that found a federal renewable electricity standard is a cost-effective method to spur clean energy use and lower consumer utility bills. According to UCS' calculations, $24 billion of the $94 billion saved by 2030 would go to industrial electricity customers, while commercial and residential users would save more than $40 billion and $29 billion respectively.
