This is the mighty-sounding Alternate Energy Portfolio Standards Act. Basically, it's a mandate that 18 percent of Pennsylvania's energy supply come from renewable and alternate energy sources by 2020. The goal is to reduce dependence on oil and natural gas by shifting to solar power, wind power, coal gasification technology, biomass energy, ethanol, etc.

The mandate is falling on the electric utilities. They are required in stages leading up to 2020 to make sure a certain percentage of the electricity they sell to residential customers comes from these alternate sources.

What the 2004 law doesn't spell out is how Pennsylvania should go about meeting the 18 percent threshold.

The basic choice facing Pennsylvanians is to have state government take a greater role in leading the transition to alternate energy use as Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell proposes or let the private marketplace guide the way. The latter choice is what many Republican lawmakers and business interests prefer.

Rendell has proposed an $850 million Energy Independence Fund to channel state economic development aid to energy companies, provide venture capital to start-up firms and provide consumers and small businesses with rebates to encourage purchases of energy-efficient home appliances and solar power systems.

GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced bills to provide tax credits to encourage businesses and consumers to invest in such things as alternate energy production, "green" buildings and more efficient appliances. The philosophical differences between the two approaches were apparent in an informal debate last week between Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York, sponsor of the bill to create Rendell's energy independence fund, and Gene Barr, an official with the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. The Commonwealth Foundation hosted the event.

The business community by and large opposes Rendell's plan saying it smacks too much of government mandate and letting public officials pick which businesses will be "winners" in the race to build new green technology, Barr said.

"I think we have to be cautious about government betting on a technology that may not be viable in 10 to 15 years," he added.

As a former official with the Department of Community and Economic Development, DePasquale helped land the deal where Gamesa Corp., the Spanish wind energy firm, decided to open a North American headquarters in Philadelphia and build four plants to manufacture wind turbine blades and various windmills in Pennsylvania. Gamesa is looking at windmill sites in Luzerne County, including Nescopeck Mountain in Butler Township.

Thirty-nine states competed to get Gamesa's business, said DePasquale, but Pennsylvania won out because of its location, workforce, aid package and the Portfolio Standards Act which establishes a market for alternate energy.

Robert Swift is Harrisburg bureau chief for Times-Shamrock newspapers. He can be reached at rswift@timesshamrock.com.