Renewable-energy standards on table
HELENA — Changes to the law regulating utilities’ renewable-energy portfolios are being proposed in a cluster of bills before lawmakers, generating cries of foul play from environmentalists who contend that the proposals undermine efforts to boost renewables.
Two of the measures — House Bills 207 and 208 — passed out of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee on Tuesday and will go to the Senate.
Both bills deal with a rule, set to take effect in 2010, that requires public utilities to buy renewable energy from small producers.
One measure increases the qualifying size for a small producer, from 5 megawatts to 25 megawatts. The other extends the compliance deadline for utilities by two years.
Republican Rep. Harry Klock of Harlowton, sponsor of House Bill 207, said the size change could encourage more renewable project developers to build in Montana.
A 2005 law requires public utilities to buy an increasing amount of electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, solar or geothermal. These increases cap at 15 percent in 2015.
Currently, utilities also must buy a portion of that renewable energy from small producers, a provision that proponents in 2005 said would boost economic development in rural areas.
“You made a trade-off, and the trade off was between size and spreading these projects around rural Montana for the purposes of economic development,” said Chuck McGraw, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which opposes the measures.
NorthWestern Energy and Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. — the only public utilities subject to the renewable rules — say not enough small producers offer energy at competitive prices for the companies to meet the requirements.
The two measures, said NorthWestern and Montana-Dakota, would increase the number of possible qualifying producers and provide time for the renewables industry to develop.
Opponents, however, say that current law already provides exemptions for the utilities if renewable energy is not competitively priced, and they argue the bills represent an effort to dismantle the state’s renewable standards in piecemeal steps.
Associated Press
4 March 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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