Why States Should Reconsider Renewable Portfolio Standards

David Kemp made the case for reforming the Renewable Portfolio Standards in RealClearEnergy.

Across state capitals and in Washington, policymakers are scrambling to address voters’ alarm over electricity bills. The Trump administration is unwinding major climate regulations, Democrats are focusing more on affordability concerns than climate change, and governors are quietly paring back clean energy subsidies and emissions mandates they championed only a few years ago. Climate policies are starting to bite, and the political strategy that helped enact them, downplaying costs and obscuring tradeoffs, is becoming harder to sustain as ratepayers see the impact on their bills.

One of the country’s most popular climate policies has largely escaped this scrutiny. More than half the states have a renewable portfolio standard, or RPS, requiring utilities to source a specified share of electricity from qualifying renewable sources such as wind and solar. Many standards are scheduled to climb sharply in the coming years. Rhode Island, for example, requires 100% renewable electricity by 2033. Fifteen states plus D.C. will require more than 50% by 2050.

Read the full piece here!