Talking Points

The Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) Sustainable Energy Act:

• Phases in a realistic renewable energy commitment over 12 years;
• Makes use of energy generated from renewable sources such as sustainable biomass, wind, solar, ocean power, geothermal, and small-scale run-of-river hydro;
• Ensures that all energy marketers use a minimum percentage of this energy in the mix; and
• Makes sense for economic, technological, environmental, health, security, and long-term planning reasons.

RPS makes economic sense.

• When investing in the market, you want a diverse portfolio to protect yourself. This act ensures our state will have a diverse energy portfolio to protect us into the future. The RPS Sustainable Energy Act ensures we won’t put all of our eggs into one basket.

RPS means economic development.

• Renewables have enormous export potential. Because they are home-grown, renewables can also increase energy security, create local jobs, and generate income. 

RPS puts American technology to work.

• As the most technologically advanced country on earth, we ought to put this environmental expertise to work. Renewable energy will be necessary whether we like it or not. If we develop a market to provide the materials required by RPS, we will see an economic payoff for our state in the future.

RPS will save lives.

• Thousands of premature respiratory deaths could be avoided if we used clean energy alternatives to dirty-air power plants.

RPS is good for your health.

• Thousands of asthma attacks nationwide could be avoided if we used clean energy alternatives to dirty-air power plants.
• Many power plants emit mercury, which can cause serious damage to the nervous system and is especially harmful to children and pregnant women. Using clean energy alternatives would avoid this poisoning.

RPS means reducing pollution.

• Electricity generation is also a leading source of carbon dioxide emissions, the key heat-trapping gas that is causing global climate changes. The warming that is predicted for the next several decades (without action to reduce carbon emissions) could destroy many coastal wetlands, cause more frequent storms and other extreme weather events, put crop production under great stress in some regions, and disrupt public health and ecosystems.
• Reducing pollution helps the economy. The pollution associated with fossil fuels places a burden on the American economy as well as on the environment. The greatest economic impacts take the form of higher health care costs, missed work, and lost lives.

RPS means we use fewer natural resources.

• Where renewables are used, they do not require the massive amounts of water associated with nuclear power production, coal mining, and petroleum refining. Nor do renewables produce radioactive wastes or other poison by-products such as arsenic, lead, and mercury.

RPS makes sense for the future.

• We need to move away from our current dependence on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels will not last forever, and they pollute our air, water, and land. Electricity generators are the single largest class of industrial polluters in the country.

RPS can cut infrastructure costs.

• Some renewable technologies can be sited in or near buildings where electricity is used. This practice, known as distributed generation, can avoid costly expenditures on transmission and distribution equipment. Distributed generation can also improve power quality and system reliability.

RPS has other economic advantages.

• Prospective environmental cleanup costs of fossil-fuel-based plants are never considered up front when generation investment decisions are made; only later are ratepayers presented with these costs.
• Portfolio diversity gives us national energy security. By broadening the mix of energy sources, renewables can make the United States less vulnerable to volatile fuel prices and interruptions to the fuel supply. Renewables like wind and solar that do not depend on fuels are not subject to price fluctuations, such as the huge leaps in oil and gas prices seen in the 1970s and 1980s.

RPS can help replace high risk nuclear power.

• Nuclear energy creates enormous risks. Apart from accidental leaks, the terrorist acts of September 11th should concern us as we consider building more nuclear power plants. Renewable energy is distributed over large tracts of land, and is less susceptible to attack.

Renewable portfolio standards are realistic.

• We are not talking about switching all of our energy over to windmills and solar panels – that’s not realistic. But, it is realistic to expect that renewable energy can make up 15 percent of our total power 12 years from now. For every six hours a lightbulb burns, only about an hour of that time would be powered by renewables.