WASHINGTON
- February 14 - The Union of Concerned Scientists today joined in the release of Repowering the Midwest, a blueprint for clean electricity production in America's heartland. The report builds on UCS's 1993 landmark report Powering the Midwest, which examined the potential for renewable energy -- wind, solar, and biomass resources -- to meet energy needs and provide new economic development opportunities for the Midwest.
The new report, coordinated and published by the Environmental Law & Policy Center, shows policymakers, industry and citizens how to combine renewable energy sources with energy efficiency improvements to the existing electricity system and with new low-emission natural gas power plants into a comprehensive clean energy development plan. Renewable energy would provide at least eight percent of the region's electricity generation by 2010 and 22 percent by 2020. Sulfur dioxide pollution, which causes acid rain, would be cut by 56 percent; nitrogen oxide pollution, which causes smog, by 71 percent; and carbon dioxide pollution, which causes global warming, by 51 percent.
"The report shows how clean energy production can make economic and environmental sense," said Alan Nogee, Director of UCS's Clean Energy Program and a member of the report's steering committee. "California took a detour from this path in the 1990s, and is now paying a heavy price in power shortages and higher prices. This report can help the region and the nation avoid making California's mistakes. We can have reliable and affordable energy supplies while cleaning up the environment."
Nogee notes that during the California deregulation debate, the state's utilities slashed energy conservation and renewable energy programs similar to those recommended in Repowering the Midwest. "California utilities cut their energy efficiency programs in half, and persuaded federal regulators to kill a state program to develop renewable energy sources," said Nogee. "Gutting these California programs eliminated the equivalent of 3,200 megawatts of planned power plant capacity-enough to serve 3.2 million homes-and contributed to today's power shortages and higher electricity prices."
"We need a national energy policy that puts energy efficiency and clean renewable energy development first," said Nogee. Repowering the Midwest recommends federal and regional policies to enact:
minimum standards for energy suppliers to meet a growing fraction of their energy from renewable energy sources;
public benefit funds to invest in energy efficiency improvements and the development of new, clean, and renewable energy technologies;
more stringent energy efficiency standards and building codes; · incentives for electricity customers to install clean, distributed electricity generators; and
fair pollution rules that would eliminate grandfathering of old, dirty coal plants.
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