Posted on 05/02/2007 10:37:03 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate may vote later this month on an energy bill that would by 2020 require that 15 percent of U.S. electricity be produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar.
The same bill would require 10 percent of federal power purchases to be produced by "green" methods by 2010.
The Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday sent to the full chamber a bill that also targets demand for gasoline -- the biggest chunk of U.S. petroleum use -- by increasing fuel economy and boosting production of nonpetroleum fuels like ethanol. For full story, double-click on
While much of the bill centers around a plan to cut gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017, 35 percent by 2025 and 45 percent by 2030, it also would set goals for "green" power production and authorize $315 million to study carbon dioxide emission storage at power plants, oil refineries and other industrial plants.
This is the fourth time a federal "renewable portfolio standard" for electricity production has been attempted in Congress. Three times before it has passed the Senate, only to be felled by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The bill's major co-sponsor and chairman of the Senate energy panel, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat from New Mexico, is confident that, with Democrats now controlling the House, a federal standard can be set, his spokesman said on Wednesday.
Bingaman said he would try to modify the legislation on the Senate floor to include a requirement that 15 percent of U.S. electricity supplies be generated by solar, wind and other renewable energy sources by 2020.
More than 20 states have established "renewable portfolio standards" requiring green power production. At least 12 of them are at least as stringent as the Senate proposal, and this bill would not trump state-level renewable power efforts.
"This is an issue where the states are ahead of the federal government," said Bill Wicker, spokesman for Bingaman and the Senate Energy Committee. "There is no federal preemption of existing state renewable portfolio standards."
Existing hydropower projects or any nuclear power plants would not be considered renewable power, Wicker said. New output at hydropower projects would count, he said.
Wicker said Bingaman got a letter on Tuesday signed by 50 of the chamber's 100 senators. Add the letter's recipient to the count and a Senate majority "is on the record saying they will support it," Wicker said.
Bingaman said Democratic leaders may have the Senate take up the bill this month. If the legislation is accepted by the Senate, it still must be approved by the House and signed by President George W. Bush before it could become law.
Power-generating windmill turbines form a wind farm on Backbone Mountain near Thomas, West Virginia August 28, 2006. The U.S. Senate may vote later this month on an energy bill that would by 2020 require that 15 percent of U.S. electricity be produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
And it matters not to the environmentalists whether or not 15% of energy can be efficiently or economically (usually the same thing) produced by “green” sources, like solar. Nor does it matter if solar, wind, ethanol, or other “green” sources are in fact actually better for the environment.
Time to dust off all those nuclear reactors the loony moonbats shut down 30 years ago.
It’ll never happen. Between the NIMBY mindset [remember the wind farm proposal for Cape Cod, MA and Lancaster CA?] and EPA and it’s requirements, the worlds oil reserves would have to be sucked dry first.
Ethanol: The biggest scam of the 21st century. Bad for cars, bad for grocery consumers, bad for the enviorment and good for the farmers.
John Kerry may be a supporter since the only abundant source of CO2-free energy will be from France, because they adopted our Westinghouse boiling water reactor technology and are now generating close to 100% of their electric power from clean, inexpensive nuclear, while enjoying the best air in Europe. They are now energy exporters. So who would be the likely choice for energy emissary to France but John F?
Our corn-based ethanol is a major producer of CO2, not to mention a negative net gain in energy - it takes slightly more energy to refine our ethanol than we generate using it. But we could perhaps buy sugar-based ethanol from Brazil, and help their economy. Has anyone calculated the impact of importing million barrels each day from Brazil, discounting for the moment whether Brazil could begin to refine that much sugar. Here it helps to consider how much land would be consumed in Brazil, where 6000 liters/year are produced by each hectare, and we need to import at least 20 million liters/day.
Some politician should ask an undergraduate engineering student how much energy one can optimistically derive from different states using “renewable” resources, how much land can be covered with solar collectors, and how the energy can be stored while the sun doesn't’t shine. Wind too is a chimera, as anyone driving the Altamont Pass can attest. Wind-power was a boondoggle for savvy investors who figured how to be repaid by state incentives and tax breaks.
California operators know the truth, though politicians and state agencies don’t share it with the public. While boasting of the noble penalties they will impose on Californians in the interest of global warming, the California PUC commission is proposing four coal fired plants in Montana any one of which will produce considerably more CO2, than all the cars trucks and buses in the state, and enormously more waste material, including more radioactive material (thorium and uranium) exposed to the environment that any nuclear plant.
The only real solution, other than destroying the economy, is to begin building nuclear plants and save the hydrocarbon fuels for applications where they are the most efficient. Stop burning natural gas and oil to produce electricity. Stop burning coal because it is dirty. We will arrive there some day, but may need to pay the price for the dearth of engineering and arithmatic skills among our citizens and politicians.
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