Renewable Portfolio Standard Legislation: The Case against the Status Quo
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2008
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Our world today is faced with seemingly insurmountable, interconnected problems: global warming, terrorism, poverty. World energy needs are only rising, and with that growth will come a 57 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Consequences of global warming: rise in temperatures, increase in water levels, melting of ice caps, variability of storms, etc. are not secluded to the countries emitting high levels of greenhouse gases, but rather affect the entire world, and even often disproportionately cause problems in developing countries. These same developing countries are often the same countries hit the hardest by global poverty, a world issue that takes the lives of 18 million people a year. That poverty gives rise to terrorism as people, who feel unable to enact change due to a lack of resources, attempt to make their voices heard. Each of these world problems appears too grand and too overbearing to tackle and therefore as a country, and even as one global people, we have done little to affect change in any of these areas. The United States spends less than one percent of its annual budget on foreign aid, has not signed onto the Kyoto Protocol, has enacted no legislation at the national level to encourage renewable energy development, and sent the vast majority of troops to Iraq as opposed to Afghanistan where terrorist leaders are known to reside. These issues seem overwhelming, and they are, but that does not mean that some progress cannot be made. As John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, said, "We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." The state of the world seems just so. Due to the fact that all three problems are so deeply imbedded in one another, one action could potentially affect all three. That one action is legislating a national Renewable Portfolio Standard. A Renewable Portfolio Standard, or an RPS, mandates that a certain percentage of electricity generated within a governing body must come from renewable sources. By enforcing RPS legislation, a government can help develop a market for renewable energy, which in tum will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, encourage job growth, slow the effects of global warming, and decrease a nation's dependence on foreign powers for energy needs. RPS legislation currently is in place in 25 American states and the District of Columbia and is achieving great success. The success though, is limited, and will not fully be experienced until the 'patchwork' of laws throughout the country is standardized at the national level. Utility companies have little incentive to develop renewable sources when they can still rely on destructive, traditional means of electricity generation in states without RPS statutes. While there is a school of thought that endorses the state-based approach, this paper will highlight its shortcomings and support legislation at the national level. In the first section of this paper, Renewable Portfolio Standard policies will be explained in more detail. The costs, history, and far-reaching benefits of such a course of action will be argued. A single policy in any country has the ability to affect the order of the world. In the case of the United States, a Renewable Portfolio Standard is an example of one such piece of legislation. In the second section of this paper, two approaches to the application of an RPS in the United States will be explained. Currently, there is a system of state control in regards to Renewable Portfolio Standards in the United States. While this system is better than nothing, it never allows the country to see the fullest benefits of an RPS. A national RPS would be significantly more effective than the status quo. It allows for uniformity in the laws, which is helpful to businesses and investors, and is more efficient at truly developing a renewable energy industry. It will also be argued that there should be only one ideology ofthose in favor of an RPS, and why support for the state-based approach is essentially a lack of support for the policy. We, as a country, have the chance to affect positive change on three pressing global issues. As John W. Gardner would say, we have the ability to find opportunity in the midst of world problems.