Last
week, the Wall Street Journal
predicted that United States legislatures were considering making cut backs to
green energy programs amidst budget concerns. Votes were up in 29 states, including
Washington, D.C., and represented a potentially devastating blow to the
environmental movement. According to some, government investment in energy
alternatives like solar and wind violate free-trade democracy.
Luckily
for the rest of the world however, most of those votes have fallen short.
"ALEC’s (the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council) attempt
to squash clean energy standards in the states has failed," said Gabe
Elsner, director of the Checks and Balances Project, an advocacy group that
helps hold government officials, lobbyists, and corporations accountable to the
public. "I thought they would have had more success."
After
the 2012 election, ALEC teamed up with well-known libertarian groups in an
effort to derail the transition to green energy. But this year, not a single state
repealed its renewable energy requirements or pollution standards. In fact,
some states have bolstered them!
Colorado,
for example, more than doubled its mandate for energy sales, requiring 20% to
come by way of renewable resources by the end of the decade. In Minnesota, utility
companies now must generate 1.5% of their electricity from solar. (And that’s
in addition to the 25% renewable energy production they hope to achieve by 2025.)
Chelsea
Barnes of Keyes, Fox & Wiedman, a law firm that tracks energy legislation, isn’t
so surprise that the voting went the way it did. "We started seeing more
of these stories on this coordinated attack on renewables," she said. But
the anxiety was "more of a media issue than an actual industry
issue."
[ nrglab, nrglab pte ltd, nrglab singapore, nrglab сингапур, ana shell, annie j, green energy, American Legislative Exchange Council, Chelsea Barnes of Keyes, Fox, Wiedman, ALEC, Gabe Elsner, Checks and Balances Project ]
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