States Lead as Renewable Energy Needs, Opportunities Grow

Climate change. Global warming. Foreign oil dependency. Natural gas prices. Ozone alerts. Brownouts. Increasingly, energy related items grab the headlines, copy space and news coverage across America.

Strategies for dealing with energy issues vary — and spark some of the most heated debates in federal public policy. More and more sides of the energy discussion see research, development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies, while historically receiving negligible federal funding relative to traditional energy R&D, as playing more prominent roles toward solutions to the country's energy issues.

A recently released national study finds that, in the absence of this federal leadership, 19 states have acted to increase the nation's supply of wind, solar and other renewable energy resources. Plugging in Renewable Energy: Grading the States, released by the independent nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), assigns grades to all 50 states based on each state's commitment to renewable electricity (as determined by projecting the results of renewable electricity standards for electric companies and dedicated renewable electricity funds). Current state renewable energy generation also is considered. The report shows California, Nevada, Texas, Massachusetts and New Mexico account for nearly 80 percent of the nation's projected renewable gains.

California and Nevada led the nation with grades of A- for committing to increase the amount of electricity generated from clean, renewable energy sources. However, 34 states received grades of D or F for failing to adequately promote renewable energy.

UCS estimates the 19 states that have enacted renewable electricity standards or funds will increase total U.S. renewable energy capacity 113 percent by 2017. This increase will provide enough electricity for 10.4 million typical homes and eliminate as much carbon dioxide – the main heat-trapping gas causing global warming – as taking 7.4 million cars off the road.

Long-term funding for President Bush's initiative in hydrogen fuel/fuel cell development, the report says, could play a significant role in creating the national infrastructure needed to support additional new renewable energy opportunities.

The technical potential of renewable energy sources already could provide 5.6 times the amount of electricity the U.S. used in 2001. The top 10 states for overall renewable energy potential are North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Minnesota (additional states become major players when considering specific renewable energy sources of wind, solar, bioenergy or geothermal). For those curious about the commercialization opportunity of renewable energy technologies within their state, Chapter Two and Appendix B of the study are dedicated to each state's renewable energy potential.

Unfortunately, the report does not discuss nor consider in its grades various states' important roles in supporting research, development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies.

Plugging in Renewable Energy is available at http://www.ucsusa.org.