Dear Representative,
On behalf of PennEnvironment's citizen members, I am writing to urge
you to support House Bill 2405 (DePasquale), which was introduced in
the House of Representatives last week and referred to the
Environmental Resources & Energy Committee. This important
legislation is a "new-and-improved" version of House Bill 80, and would
increase the production of clean, renewable energy in Pennsylvania,
helping to protect the environment and increase the number of
clean energy jobs in the Commonwealth.
For far too long, Pennsylvania has been overly reliant on dirty and
dangerous energy sources--namely fossil fuels and nuclear power--to
meet the Commonwealth's electricity needs. In addition to the
environmental and public health costs of our reliance on these energy
sources, Pennsylvania's clean energy economy will soon be losing out to
other states that have made stronger commitments to clean, renewable
energy production.
Specifically, Pennsylvania's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard
(AEPS) currently requires that 8 percent of the Commonwealth's
electricity come from clean, renewable energy sources by 2021 (Tier 1
requirement). This standard, while helping to advance renewable energy
in Pennsylvania, pales in comparison to the standards of neighboring
states, including New Jersey (22.5 percent by 2021), Delaware (20
percent by 2019), Maryland (20 percent by 2022) and New York (25
percent by 2013). Without a more ambitious goal for renewable energy
production in Pennsylvania, we'll lose out on clean energy development
jobs and dollars that will instead go to neighboring states, and we
won't reduce global warming pollution levels as quickly as we otherwise
would.
HB 2405 would provide a critical first step toward ensuring that
Pennsylvania remains a national leader in clean energy jobs for years
to come. This bill would ramp-up the state's Tier 1 clean energy
standard so that 15 percent of Pennsylvania's electricity needs will be
met with clean energy sources like wind and solar power by 2024. The
bill would also increase the specific standard for solar energy
production within the Tier 1 standard, so that 3 percent of
Pennsylvania's electricity needs will be met with solar energy by 2024.
The clean energy jobs benefits of HB 2405's enactment would be
significant. A recent analysis by Black and Veatch that examined the
impacts of expanding the AEPS as HB 2405 outlines found that 129,000
job-years would be created. In addition, the Black and Veatch study
found that these jobs benefits would be realized while increasing
monthly electricity bills by only about 50 cents for the average
Pennsylvania household.
Finally, PennEnvironment strongly urges you to reject amendments to HB
2405 that would expand the AEPS to include additional dirty or
dangerous resources, especially nuclear power. The AEPS should help to
advance the clean energy technologies of tomorrow, not provide
government hand-outs to the same dirty energy sources we have been
overly reliant on for decades.
Given the importance of this bill and potential amendments,
PennEnvironment will include floor votes around HB 2405 in our next
environmental scorecard. If you have any questions about this bill or
related issues, please don't hesitate to contact me by phone
(215-732-5897) or email (nwillcox@pennenvironment.org).
Sincerely,
Nathan Willcox
Energy & Clean Air Advocate
PennEnvironment
