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newsroom
- We congratulate Senators Boxer and Kerry for introducing a climate change bill and recognize this as the next critical step toward passing comprehensive legislation that will address global climate change.
- The aggressive near-term reduction in greenhouse gases of 20% below 2005 levels by 2020 is consistent with what scientific consensus shows is necessary to avert catastrophic climate change and helps set the stage for climate legislation as a long-term driver of renewable energy deployment.
- However, it remains critical to enact complementary policies like a renewable electricity standard (RES) to serve as a deployment driver in the near- and medium-term while the climate program gains momentum. An RES will immediately help us get on a path to achieve proposed emissions reduction goals while reducing the cost of compliance and ultimately reducing the cost to consumers.
- We welcome the recognition in the Boxer-Kerry draft of clean renewable energy generation with a program to directly distribute allowances to renewable energy generators.
- The bill's impact on wind energy development is largely dependent on the relative allocation of permits between generation technologies and that is a blank slate at this point. However, wind should be a significant part of meeting the climate change goals.
- In the coming weeks and months, we look forward to working with Senator Boxer’s committee, other committees, and Majority Leader Harry Reid to ensure a comprehensive bill is brought to the Senate Floor which successfully achieves the near-term emission reduction goals through immediate deployment of currently available and large-scale solutions like wind power.
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