UCS Calls for More Support for Renewable Energy in Clean Power Plan

On October 14, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published a policy report suggesting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has underestimated the potential of renewable energy in its recently released draft regulation on carbon emissions from existing power plants, called the Clean Power Plan (CPP). UCS says states have double the renewable energy potential the EPA calculated in the CPP, and if states used this potential fully, they could cost-effectively cut carbon emissions 10 percent more than the current EPA goal of 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. UCS says, “The CPP does not adequately capture renewable energy deployment rates that states are already achieving. [The CPP] also fails to reflect the continued market growth and falling costs of renewable energy projected by market experts.” The report says if the CPP were to have strengthened renewable energy targets, the cost of electricity and overall emissions would decrease.

According to the UCS report, there are currently seven states already producing renewable energy at levels above the 2030 targets the EPA set for them. Additionally, 17 more states have laws that will require greater use of renewable energy than the EPA’s proposed targets. The report explains, “Diversifying the electricity mix with renewable energy would help reduce the economic risks associated with overreliance on natural gas.” The report notes that to ensure that natural gas prices remain stable in the future, and to keep electricity prices in general relatively low, demand for natural gas needs to be reduced. By strengthening state targets for renewable energy and further incentivizing energy efficiency, demand for natural gas will gradually decrease. UCS found that if these recommended policies are implemented, natural gas prices would be 9 percent lower in 2030 than business-as-usual levels. In addition, their models suggest increasing renewable energy targets would add a maximum of 18 cents to the electric bill of a typical household in the United States using 600 kilowatt-hours monthly.

UCS concluded the report with recommendations on how to strengthen the EPA’s Clean Power Plan which included: expanding renewable energy’s role in achieving state reduction targets; strengthening state emissions reduction and renewable energy targets; and implementing measures to prevent double counting in renewable generation. If the EPA were to adopt these recommendations, UCS estimates that renewable energy could provide 23 percent of the nation’s power in 2030 – double EPA’s current estimate in its proposed regulations. These renewable energy sources include: hydropower, solar photovoltaic (PV), biomass power generation, and concentrating solar power.

 

Authors: Brendan Ingargiola and Laura Small

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