Supporters of renewable energy plan to reintroduce a failed effort on Capitol Hill to require utilities nationwide to generate a portion of their power from renewable sources, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said today.
The Denver Democrat championed the renewable-standard provision as part of a comprehensive energy bill that passed the House. But the requirement that utilities generate 15 percent of their energy from renewables was stripped from the legislation before it could pass the Senate in December.
“My belief is that whenever you have a new idea, you have to keep educating people. I think this is an idea whose time will come in the future,” DeGette said, after a tour of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.
U.S. Rep Ed Perlmutter, a Golden Democrat, also took the tour.
Supporters of renewable energy will mount a “real effort” to initiate the standards in the next session, he said.
The energy bill may have passed without the renewable portfolio standard and tax incentives to boost renewable production that Democrats wanted, but it can’t be called a failure, he said.
The measure does include a mandate that vehicles get an average of 35 mpg by 2020 and other advances, he said.
“It is the beginning of a number of other pieces of legislation that will move us away from fossil fuels,” he said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
