The authors of this policy white paper discuss the risks of renewable portfolio legislation which include aggressive time schedules to reach compliance. While the authors advocate renewable technologies to solve, they warn that any eagerness to get the benefits of renewables must be tempered with recognition that forcing the timing increases costs and could reduce reliability. They also note that time pressure can raise costs and make it impossible to attain specified goals. The paper was prepared for The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The executive summary appears on this page. To access the full paper, click on one of the links below.

This document discusses the political reality of global warming, the push for renewable energy alternatives, and the effort by environmental organizations to see fossil fuel electrical power replaced with energy conservation, renewable and clean energy. The conclusions and recommendations of the document are included below. The full document can be accessed by clicking on one of the links below.

This document by Professor Robert J. Michaels and published in Energy Law Journal provides an economist's perspective on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard as considered by the U.S. Government. The synopsis of the document appears below. The full paper can be downloaded by clicking on one of the links below.

Jon Boone, an intervenor on the Clipper Wind proposal before the Maryland PSC presented these comments to the PSC in regard to Case No: 8938 Criterion Wind. The Criterion Wind project is the same project as the Clipper Wind proposal only reduced down to 70MW to qualify for fast-track review.

Dr. Robert L. Bradley, Jr. ("Why Renewable Energy Is Not Cheap and Not Green") wrote this compeling document for the Institute for Study of Economics and the Environment at Lindenwood University following his lecture last fall. Outsiders viewing Enron’s collapse blamed it on unregulated markets and free-market capitalism. But, Bradley says Enron fell mainly because it was a “politically dependent” firm, not a truly “free-market” company. The list of Enron political initiatives to promote a marketing strategy of “sustainable development” includes: 1) support for the Clinton/Gore 1993 proposal for a Btu tax; 2) aggressive investment in solar power in 1994; 3) the purchase of Zond Corporation in 1996 to start the U.S. wind industry; 4) spearheading of the nation’s most strict renewable energy mandate in Texas in 1999 and 5) unsuccessful lobbying of the Bush/Cheney administration to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Bradley includes a never-before-published memo from Enron’s man-on-the-scene at the Kyoto climate change meetings. Writing from Kyoto, Enron’s representative predicted: “If implemented [the Kyoto Protocol] will do more to promote Enron’s business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring of the ‘electricity’ and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States….

Federal electricity subsidies and support per unit of production (dollars per megawatt hour) varied widely by fuel in FY2007, according to EIA. Coal-based synfuels (refined coal) that are eligible for the alternative fuels tax credit, solar power and wind power received the highest subsidies per unit of generation, ranging from more than $23 to nearly $30 per megawatt hour of generation. The smallest subsidies on a per unit basis were for coal, natural gas and petroleum liquids, and municipal solid waste, all at less than $0.45 per megawatthour of generation.

This memorandum was distributed to landowners participating in Midwest Wind Energy's Stony Brook wind farm proposed for Calumet County, Wisconsin. The memo was sent within two days of the County Board supervisors adopting amendments to the wind energy facilities ordinance.

This new report published by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, discusses the rising costs of electricity in the State. A number of recommendations are offered, including an overhaul of the Renewable Portfolio Standard, a state policy that supports clean-energy generation such as wind farms. The Executive Summary is provided below. The full report can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.

The Vermont Legislature has now passed S.209 with amendments objected to by Northeast Kingdom Senators Coppenrath, Kitchel, and Starr and by several other senators with industrial wind energy proposals in their districts. As Sen. Coppenrath noted in consideration of an amendment to S. 209, recorded in the Feb. 26, 2008 Journal of the Senate, "I vote No because, although there are many very good provisions in this bill, I believe that Section 25 clearly allows the destruction of our mountain tops and ridgelines while providing subsidies for wind developers at the expense of the Vermont resident property tax payers."