Energy Policy Battle Heats Up at the State Level

Most public attention related to green energy policy is focused on the national level in Washington, where legislators and the president debate everything from cap-and-trade proposals to subsidies for various industries and technologies. Meanwhile, a corresponding shadow debate is also occurring on a nationwide scope, but at the state level.

Politically conscious citizens can usually keep up with day-to-day events in the nation’s capital relatively easily, but it’s much harder to follow the national campaign that occurs at the state level, where large lobbying groups fight small skirmishes in multiple battlegrounds at the same time.

Society has caught up with the idea that large interest groups with massive amounts of money often dictate political battles, but most people don’t follow politics on the state level outside of their home area, meaning it can be harder to see the battles that occur on a national scope, but on a state-by-state basis.

One of the biggest fights at the moment revolves around individual state’s rules regulating energy utilities. Currently, 29 states and the District of Columbia have standards dictating how much of a utility’s power must be derived from renewable sources. Introducing this type of rule on the national level has been a compete non-starter, suffering a similar fate to cap-and-trade proposals in the past.

This lack of action on the federal level has allowed public interest groups to focus their attention on the state battles. Organizations like the Heartland Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council have created a piece of model legislation for political groups attempting to counteract green energy quotas for individual states, called the Electricity Freedom Act.

On the other side of the debate, groups like the American Wind Energy Association and Center for American Progress have been fighting to maintain renewable energy incentives and expand them when possible.

At the current moment, the battle is mostly going in one direction, with additional green energy incentives and standards being approved by many states. Since the beginning of 2009, eight states have increased their standards requiring utilities to include renewable energy sources, while three have established voluntary goals and six have rejected attempts to repeal their quotas.