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NextEra's Hay Says Senate Must Pass Renewables Rule (Update2)
2010-07-26 22:13:54.724 GMT
(Updates with Reid spokesman, wind energy association
comment starting in second paragraph.)
By Simon Lomax
July 26 (Bloomberg) -- An energy bill scheduled to be
unveiled tomorrow in the U.S. Senate should be amended to
require utility companies to buy more electricity from renewable
sources such as wind farms, according to Lewis Hay, chief
executive officer of NextEra Energy Inc.
Without a national renewable electricity standard, the U.S.
is "in serious danger of losing the clean energy race" to
countries such as China, Hay told reporters on a conference call
today. NextEra may hold back $2.5 billion a year in wind and
solar power investment if the renewable standard isn't passed,
he said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, plans
to unveil an energy bill tomorrow that responds to the BP Plc
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Jim Manley, his spokesman, said
in an e-mail. The bill aims to "create green jobs, hold BP
accountable, protect our environment and invest in clean
vehicles that reduce oil consumption," Manley said.
Reid said last week he considered adding to the energy bill
a renewable electricity standard and a plan to charge power
plants a price for releasing carbon dioxide.
He said July 22 that there aren't enough votes to pass
those measures and that the legislation will be narrowed down to
offshore drilling regulation, energy-efficiency programs and
incentives for vehicles that run on natural gas.
August Break
Reid said today the energy bill is scheduled for debate on
the Senate floor this week. He has said he wants it passed
before lawmakers leave Washington in early August for a
monthlong break.
NextEra, based in Juno Beach, Florida, has supported
establishing a renewable electricity standard, or RES, and
putting a price on carbon through cap-and-trade legislation in
which companies buy and sell a declining number of pollution
allowances.
It's more important to get the renewable power mandate
passed this year than the cap-and-trade program, Hay said.
"A price on carbon will shape markets over decades, but an
RES is essential to keeping the renewables industry growing
strong over the next five to 10 years," he said.
Without the renewable mandate, power companies will keep
running older, fossil-fueled power plants to generate
electricity instead of retiring them and building new wind farms
and other low-pollution sources, Hay said.
Sufficient Votes
A renewable electricity standard can attract the 60 out of
100 votes that are routinely required to get major legislation
through the Senate, despite Reid's prediction that it can't
pass, Denise Bode, chief executive officer of the American Wind
Energy Association, said in an e-mail.
Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback's support for a
renewable electricity standard, announced today, shows there is
enough bipartisan support to get the measure through the Senate,
where there are 57 Democrats and two independents who caucus
with them, Bode said.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Stories about U.S. and climate: TNI US CLIMATE <GO>
Global emissions data: EMIS <GO>
Northeast U.S. trading: RGGI <GO>
--Editors: Joe Link, Dan Stets
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Lomax in Washington at +1-202-654-4305 or
slomax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joseph Link at +1-212-617-2608 or
jlink1@bloomberg.net
