Midterm Elections and Discussion of a Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard

Here’s a question for you now that mid-term elections are here. Do you have what it takes for a career as a political speechwriter? Here’s a one-question quiz that will help you find an answer. Suppose I were running for Congress. Which campaign platform would you recommend for me? You can tell voters that I will fight to:

a) Protect women’s reproductive rights, put honesty back into government, return power to the voters, and end tax-payer bailouts for the super-rich.

OR

b) Establish a federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS), even though it is fiercely opposed by the utilities who, in a deregulated environment have used their cozy relationships with the FERC-appointed quasi-governmental agencies to hide profits and create an environment in which only a fraction of clean energy is contracted for purchase at retail net metering rates, thus quietly but effectively removing incentive for capital formation in solar, wind, and other clean energy technologies.

If you picked b), I’d advise you to make another career choice.

Kidding aside, this is the exact situation in which we find ourselves at this point, which I explain on a post I just put up on Renewable Energy World called Mid-term Elections and Discussion of a Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard.