Most State Level Rollback Attempts On Clean Energy Failed

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, there were efforts in several states to roll back state renewable energy generation standards. Those efforts appear to have failed, according to the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University.

While more than 30 states voted on or considered legislation this session to change their Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), only eight have enacted modifications or increases to existing policies and no state has rolled back an existing standard to date.

The Center for the New Energy Economy’s Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker database (www.aeltracker.org) contains a comprehensive inventory of over 2,300 state advanced energy bills including the 121 bills that would have increased, modified or decreased RPS policies this year. Of those 121 introduced bills, 16 have been enacted, none of which would repeal or delay RPS statutory requirements or generation deadlines.

Colorado wind farm (image via Wikimedia Commons

“Despite attempts to roll back state renewable energy policies this year, the net impact thus far in the 2013 session is that the U.S. renewable energy market is stronger, particularly in the three states that increased their RPS standards – Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota,” said Bill Ritter, Jr., director of the Center. “States are clearly defending their RPS policies and in some cases, increasing them.”

Of the 121 unique RPS bills introduced this session, 26 of them would have rolled back minimum generation requirements, 29 sought to increase generation requirements and 66 would have modified an existing state RPS.

The eight states in which RPS policies were expanded or modified this year include Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Virginia and Washington. Bills that would have repealed, weakened or delayed implementation of RPS policies died in Kansas, Missouri, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Repeal legislation remains in committee in North Carolina and Ohio; both sessions close later in July.

The Center for the New Energy Economy has published a series of white papers on legislative policy trends, based on data analyzed in the AEL Tracker dataset. These white papers are intended to provide insight into the direction states are going in advanced energy.

“State Renewable Portfolio Standards Hold Steady or Expand in 2013 Session” is the fourth and most recent in this series. To download the full 14-page version of this state by state RPS analysis, go to: www.aeltracker.org/p/trends-analysis.