Contents

1. Summary
2. Solar in Florida
3. No Additional Coal in the Commonwealth

Summary 

The Union of Concerned Scientists and our supporters worked hard to get the renewable energy standard in the final Energy Bill, and were disappointed that the White House threatened to veto the bill if it included such provisions (read more here). Although we did not see victory on the national level, we continued to make important advances at the state level. UCS activists helped bring Florida closer to being the first state in the Southeast to have a renewable energy standard, urging the governor to harness the sun in his proposal to get 20 percent of the state's energy from clean, renewable sources. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, UCS activists succeeded in urging their state senators to improve an energy bill passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Solar in Florida

In October, over 1,100 UCS activists in Florida added their names to an online petition urging Governor Charlie Crist to support the development of solar energy in Florida. To his credit, Governor Crist had issued an executive order in July, directing the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) to develop a renewable energy standard that would require utilities to provide 20 percent of their energy from clean, renewable sources—like wind and solar. Florida would become the 26th state to adopt a renewable energy standard, and the first in the Southeast. Governor Crist specified that he wants the Florida standard to feature "a strong focus on solar and wind energy." As the PSC develops its proposal, however, utility and business interests are pressing to include nuclear and new coal-fired power plants in the renewable energy standard.

UCS is working with a coalition called the Florida Solar Roofs Initiative, trying to ensure that four percent of the renewable energy comes from solar. Two percent of the energy would be generated using solar panels ("photovoltaics") and two percent would be generated using solar water heating ("solar thermal"). In their analysis, Vote Solar found that these provisions would generate enough zero-pollution solar energy to cut out more than 20 coal-fired power plants—the single biggest source of global-warming pollution.

No Additional Coal in the Commonwealth

In December, more than 300 UCS supporters wrote and called their state senators asking them to improve an energy bill passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The bill contains many efficiency and renewable energy provisions supported by UCS and the Massachusetts Climate Coalition—dozens of groups that came together in 2001 to work to reduce global warming pollution in Massachusetts. However, the bill also contained provisions that the coalition opposed, including one that would allow new coal plants to qualify under the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard without having proven technology to capture and sequester their carbon dioxide pollution. UCS activists asked their state senators to work with senate leadership to remove incentives for technologies that would worsen our dependence on coal and possibly exacerbate our global warming pollution. The Senate version, passed in early January, would require much stronger environmental protection, including carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide emission limits. A House-Senate conference committee will now reconcile the two versions of the bill. We will be working to ensure that the best aspects of each make it into the final version.