nha and the other US trade bodies said President-elect Obama’s policy commitments would ‘spur substantial growth’ in the clean renewable energy industries and create millions of new jobs. The other trade bodies include the American Wind Energy Association, Geothermal Energy Association and Solar Energy Industries Association.
In a joint statement, the trade bodies called for key actions to help ensure growth of the renewables sector, such as addressing tax credits, mandatory generation, funding, federal procurement, grid improvements and carbon credits.
They did not give any breakdown on how the proposals would apply for each industry.
On tax credits, they called for the new Administration – which takes over on 20 January 2009 – to take immediate action to increase incentives through tax credits, to ensure they work as intended given current economic conditions. They urged that such a move should be followed by approval of a minimum five-year extension of the federal renewable energy production tax credit (PTC).
The trade organisations also called for adoption of a national renewable electricity portfolio standard to create a mandatory obligation for at least 10% of demand is met by renewable energy sources by 2012, and at least 25% by 2025.
A call was made for US$30B of investment next year for financing options that support new project development and installations for all renewable energy technologies. The funding is seen as part of the Administration’s commitment to invest US$150B in clean energy over 10 years. In addition, the trade bodies also called for extra funds for the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) programme.
They also sought that an Executive Order be issued to expand federal procurement of renewable energy generation to meet the government’s energy supply needs.
A major initiative was called for to support investment in the interstate transmission network and also smart-grid technology, which would improve the capacity and stability of grids to take clean energy generation from diverse, decentralised locations and supply to demand centres.
Adoption of a cap-and-trade regime was also urged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reward renewable energy generation through revenue gains by carbon credits.