Re-posted from the Louisville Eccentric Observer.
Activists point to higher bills, job creation in urging legislators to support clean energy
By Anne Marshall
Earlier this month, the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s public
hearing unfolded much like a game of dominoes. Held at Louisville’s
Johnson Traditional Middle School, members of the scant crowd leaned
into the microphone, one after another, their pleas all generally
falling into line: Don’t raise our bills, protect low-income families
who can’t afford ever-blooming energy costs, and get serious about
alternative energy.
Clean energy advocates hope the combination of rising rates, along
with the potential for job creation, will steer legislators towards
passing the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, a bill that’s gone nowhere in
the past two legislative sessions. It mandates that a portion of
Kentucky’s energy come from renewable sources, rather than solely from
coal. An admittedly uphill battle in a mountaintop removal state.
“I think it will look nearly impossible until the day before it
passes,” says Wallace McMullen, conservation chair with Louisville’s
chapter of the Sierra Club.
The Sept. 6 hearing was part of a series as the Public Service
Commission decides whether LG&E and Kentucky Utilities should be
allowed to tack on an environmental surcharge to bills. That could raise
residential electric bills in Louisville by up to 19 percent over the
next four years. (The Sierra Club and Metropolitan Housing Coalition
will go before the Public Service Commission in November as interveners
in the surcharge case. The Sierra Club questions the analysis behind the
fee. The Housing Coalition is concerned with how the higher bills may
inevitably hit the poor the hardest.)
The charge would eventually drop off once the utilities have covered
the estimated $2.5 billion needed to improve existing coal-fired power
plants not meeting Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. One such
upgrade would include the addition of “scrubbers” that will catch
emissions before they escape into the air. Joan Lindop, with the Greater
Louisville Sierra Club, likens this to billions on Band-Aids.
“If they scrub more emissions out, that’s more that’s going into a
coal ash pile,” she says. “We’re really not wanting to encourage them to
spend that money on old plants when it could be used for renewables.”
And so for the third year, advocates are gearing up to push
legislation they say would spark production and demand of solar, wind,
hydroelectric and geothermal power.
In 2010, the Clean Energy Opportunity Act (HB 239) was assigned to
the state House of Representatives’ Natural Resources and Environment
Committee, headed by global-warming denier Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence.
It did not get a hearing. In 2011, the bill was strategically rerouted
outside of Gooch’s committee and into the Tourism Development and Energy
Committee led by Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville. That resulted in
measured progress: A discussion hearing. No vote.
This year’s proposed legislation will look much like the one from
last year, with two critical pieces. The first includes a renewable and
efficiency portfolio standard, a policy already adopted by 29 other
states. It would require utilities to generate 12.5 percent of retail
sales from renewable energy by 2021, with at least 1 percent from solar.
This is a rather conservative standard when compared to several other
states demanding that well over 20 percent of energy eventually be
derived from renewable sources.
The other proposed policy calls for a “feed-in tariff,” which works
as a contract, establishing a fixed premium price for energy produced in
Kentucky, be it from large-scale operations or individual homeowners.
Mike Hynes, president of the Housing Partnership Inc., a developer of
affordable housing in Louisville, wrote a letter to the Public Service
Commission in support of this idea. Hynes recently installed solar
panels on one of the Housing Partnership’s properties, but was careful
to only invest in panels that would generate 75 percent of their energy
needs.
If Hynes outfitted the building with enough panels to exceed 100
percent of their desired energy, LG&E would give him a credit to go
toward future bills, rather than pay him for that energy.
“Basically,
that builds up in perpetuity. In my mind, that creates an incentive not
to produce enough electricity as one could for their household,” he
says. “With a rebate program, that’s an incentive to create systems that
are larger than what you can use."
Several regional utility companies including Duke Energy, Georgia
Power and Florida Power and Light have tariff programs that pay per
kilowatt-hour, then turn around and put that energy back into the grid.
Tom FitzGerald, with the Kentucky Resources Council, says the timing is right for renewables.
“The
unit cost of solar and wind is coming down,” says FitzGerald, adding
that while coal may appear to be the cheapest source of fuel, that’s not
including environmental costs and restrictions.
“Over the course of time, you start having to fold in extra costs because externalities have to be accounted for.”
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, will sponsor the renewable
energy bill again this year. She says supporters are tailoring their
arguments for the legislation in light of another sore subject — jobs.
“When you’re looking at business and manufacturing folks coming to
Kentucky, they want constancy in the market,” she says. “Coal is cheap
now, but it’s going up.”
The Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance
reports that neighboring states with clean energy standards are
experiencing a boom in manufacturing and construction employment. For
example, after Ohio passed legislation in 2008, about 1,500
solar-related jobs were created.
While no one expects the Clean Energy Opportunity Act to garner much
attention until election hoopla ceases, advocates believe this year the
support just might be there. They point to this week’s Governor’s
Conference on Energy and the Environment in Lexington, where various
panels discussed the issue.
“What we have to consider is coal is always going to be No. 1 for the
foreseeable 15 to 20 years,” Marzian says. “But if we don’t start
looking at different tools … we’re going to be left holding the bag.”
