Ritter says renewable energy standards here to stay, despite political shift

Former Gov. Bill Ritter on Tuesday said that he doesn’t expect Colorado’s swing in the state senate from Democrat to Republican control to have much effect on renewable energy standards in the state.

That’s because the state house is still under Democratic control and Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has just won re-election.

But Ritter said it will be interesting to watch how the debate over net metering, which allows solar-powered homes and businesses to sell excess power back to Xcel Energy, plays out. Electric utilities are seeking to pare the program back. Hickenlooper’s commission on local governments and hydraulic fracturing regulations will also be a key process to watch.

Ritter spoke during a conference call for local chambers of commerce and their member companies on what the 2014 election means for clean energy. The call was put on by Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, a national network of chambers of commerce.

The panel was moderated by the Boulder Chamber’s Angelique Espinoza and also included Daniel Martini, a senior legislative assistant and counsel to Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, and Erin Lane, vice president of Washington governmental affairs consulting firm Cascade Associates.

More important to watch than the state issues, Ritter said, is the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Rule 111d of the Clean Air Act, also sometimes referred to as the Clean Power Plan.

Released in June, the proposed rule would require that all 50 states come up with plans to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030.

“It is the biggest thing to come along for states on the energy side from the EPA,” Ritter said.

After public comment on the issue, the EPA is due to issue a final rule by next June, after which states will have a year to develop their individual compliance plans.

Ritter said he expects that there will be legal challenges to the rule from multiple states. And Martini said he imagines the shift in majority from Democrat to Republican in the U.S. Senate – giving Republicans full control of Congress – will lead to some attempts to restrict EPA appropriations and “starve the EPA” to impede its ability to enforce the final rule.

At the state level, Ritter said 29 or 30 states already have renewable energy standards regulating how much of utilities’ power must be generated by renewables, and he said he doesn’t think it’s likely there will be a push to expand any of those any time soon.

More likely, he and Martini agreed, is a focus by states on energy efficiency requirements as such rules have more bipartisan support.

on Facebook on LinkedIn