WASHINGTON—Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter urged Congress today to establish a federal standard requiring utilities to get some of their electricity from wind and other renewable energy sources.
Congress is wrestling with the federal requirement now, which environmentalists say will help cut down on the gases are warming the earth. More than 20 states, including Colorado, already have one.
If Colorado can do it, Ritter told a House panel, so can the rest of the country. A national standard also would help spur research and development to make clean energy more available, he said.
“This has to be a national effort,” said Ritter, a Democrat. “This is too important a conversation we face not to undertake it now.”
Ritter appeared before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming as Congress discusses the future of an energy bill passed earlier this summer.
Last month, the House passed a bill requiring utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. Colorado Democratic Reps. Mark Udall and Diana DeGette pushed for the measure.
But the standard is controversial. The Senate version of the bill didn’t include it, so the House and Senate will have to meet in a conference committee to work out the difference.
Opponents say a national renewable energy requirement will raise electricity prices—especially in the Southeast, where coal is abundant but wind and solar power are not as economical. They want to allow states to come up with their own renewable energy plans.
“I firmly believe that if we are to find realistic global warming solutions, Congress should encourage technological competition, but must not pick who wins and loses,” said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. “By requiring electric utilities to generate a portion of their energy from renewable sources, the government is picking the winners.”
Ritter told the committee that utilities opposed Colorado’s standard when it was first suggested.
But within a few years, the state’s largest utility, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, became the leading provider of wind energy in the nation and a major supporter of the energy law, he said.
In March, the state upped its goal to require that 20 percent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.
Setting a federal standard would only help Colorado and other states meet that goal, Ritter said.
“States are begging for the national government to establish a consistent national policy that speaks to conservation, efficiencies, renewables and clean coal,” he said. “We are best as a country when we speak with one voice on something as important as energy policy that can have an overarching impact on the rest of the world.”
Ritter also spoke about his experiences with Colorado’s energy standard at a conference sponsored by the public-private clean energy group, Alliance to Save Energy.
