Last week, The US Senate narrowly approved an amendment that would require the nation's power utilities to use more renewable sources like wind, solar and wood.
The so called "renewable electricity standard" passed without the support of both of New Hampshire's U.S. Senators, Judd Gregg and John Sununu.
Gregg's vote of "No" caught supporters of the measure off guard.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Rebecca Kaufman reports.
One group that couldn?t be more excited about the renewable electricity standard is the timber industry.
One of the greatest potential sources of renewable energy is wood chips?loggers would love to have a market for the wood that can?t be used for lumber.
Jason Stock, president of the New Hampshire Timberland Association, says energy regulations work against the use of wood.
3:35 without a standard at the federal or state level what you have is a situation where you have cheap coal or cheap nuclear power all competing against renewable power, we can get into a discussion about how all the different ways the powers are subsidized but the fact of the matter is its difficult for the renewables to compete against coal and nuclear power in the current regulatory climate
In the past, Gregg has consistently supported a renewable electricity standard, or RES. And Stock expected the same this year. That expectation was not met.
4:20 we were very very surprised actually shocked in terms of his support for renewable power, we don?t know why there was that switch, like I said we were very surprised to see that switch
An RES would mean that over the next several years, power companies across the country would gradually need to increase the amount of renewable fuels in their portfolio.
Theoretically, by 2020, ten percent of the countries electricity would come from renewable sources.
In response to a request for an interview, Senator Gregg?s office replied with a written statement.
In it, Gregg said the renewable electricity standard would have ?disproportionately favored wind power and would have completely excluded some forms of renewable energy such as existing hydropower?.
The amendment didn?t wholly exclude hydropower but it did limit how much it would count.
The treatment of power from hydroelectric dams also is a sticking point for New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass, who voted against the RES in the house, where the measure failed.
1:25 hydroelectric by any standard is a renewable energy source but the renewable standard proposal we looked at exempts hyrdroelectric, well that?s because environmentalists don?t like hydro power, this isn?t about environmental issues, this is an energy bill and if hydro electric is a renewable energy resource it ought to be included
the role of hydropower is particularly important within the context of expanding the use of renewable power.
According to Public Service of New Hampshire, the state?s largest electric company, they are already almost at the goal of ten percent renewables just with hydropower alone.
Nationwide, it?s 8 percent.
Kate Abend from the Union of Concerned Scientists says if the purpose of the legislation is to encourage new sources of energy like wind, solar, and geothermal hydropower can?t have equal footing.
5:00 including it would flood the standard with existing power, in fact including hydro would prevent the development of any new clean energy sources in new hampshire until 2017 and it would allow new hampshire utilities to meet the renewable requirement by using hyrdo from outside the state
Senator Judd Gregg was joined by Senator John Sununu in his opposition to an RES.
The Senate is likely to vote on the energy bill as early as tomorrow.
If the energy bill does pass the senate, the renewable electricity standard would have to be work out by senate and house negiotiators.
For NHPR news, I?m RK
