USA:

Senators Introduce Bill to Establish National Renewable Electricity Standard Program (Biomass Magazine)

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M, has introduced legislation that aims to establish a national renewable electricity standard (RES). The bill would require utilities to generate 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

The legislation, S. 1264, was introduced May 11 and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. To date, Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, have signed on to cosponsor the measure.

The bill would create the first national threshold for utilities to provide a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable resources, including wind, solar, biomass, landfill gas, ocean, tidal, geothermal, incremental hydropower or hydrokinetic. The RES requirement would phase in, starting at 7.5 percent in 2015 and gradually increase to 30 percent in 2030 and thereafter, through 2039.

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