States boost renewable energy

In a press release yesterday, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change announced their publication of Race to the Top: The Expanding Role of State Renewable Energy Policy (pdf, 756 KB, 48p.) by Barry Rabe of the University of Michigan:

States are using increasingly aggressive and ambitious Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in order to spur economic development and create a reliable and diversified supply of electricity, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conventional pollutants. As of mid 2006, 22 states and the District of Columbia have implemented an RPS; well over half of the American public now lives in a state in which an RPS is in operation.

The report presents case studies of five states: Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Nevada. The author found "an unusually high degree of bipartisan support and rapid expansion of RPSs at the state level. Economic development and job creation also emerge as drivers in virtually every state."

See also:

Greenhouse & Statehouse: The Evolving State Government Role in Climate Change by Barry Rabe, (pdf, 288KB, 53p., from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change), November 2002

The Impact of State Clean Energy Fund Support for Utility-Scale Renewable Energy Projects by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), (pdf, 360KB, 9p., from the Berkeley Lab), May 2006

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) web page on Renewable Energy