For your consideration -
I hope there are folks on the Sierra Iowa Topics list who might consider
proposing this sign-on to the various local environmental organizations they
work with.
Among the Iowa organizations currently supporting this proposal are Catholic
Charities Diocese of Sioux City, Center for Energy and Environmental
Education - UNI, Earth Care, Environmental Advocates, I-RENEW,
Iowa Audubon, Iowa Citizen Action Network, Iowa Environmental Policy
Project, Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Student Environmental Council,
Iowa SEED Coalition, Iowa Wind Energy Institute, Midwest Anti-Drift
Coalition & National Catholic Rural Life Conference. Other supporting
organizations are listed below by state.
Best,
Ericka Dana
----------
From: Union of Concerned Scientists
1707 H St., NW Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006-3919
High Plains Sustainable Energy for Economic Development
----------------------------------------------------------------
Recommendations for Federal Energy Policy
We, the People of the High Plains, understand our common interest in an
orderly transition toward conservation and the efficient use of clean energy
resources. Our region, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska,
Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and numerous Indian reservations, has
enormous opportunity to build our economies by addressing local pollution
problems and meeting national and global environmental goals through clean
energy. Our childrenıs future, our health, our agriculture, our way of life,
our natural resource economies and our national security face serious
consequences from our continued reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Therefore, we unite behind this common agenda to move the nation to a
prosperous and clean energy system for the 21st century.
1. Congress should not mandate retail deregulation or approval of stranded
cost recovery; these decisions must be left to the states, tribes and local
regulatory boards or agencies. Municipal utilities are subdivisions of local
government; the citizens served by municipal utilities should determine
whether to adopt retail competition. Rural electric cooperatives are owned
by their members, who should determine whether to adopt retail competition.
Deregulation should not threaten the tax-exempt status of bonds used to
finance public power facilities.
2. Congress should require that a gradually increasing share of the nationıs
electricity be produced by renewable energy technologies. Fossil fuels and
nuclear power are mature industries that continue to receive considerable
government subsidies. Moreover, the price of fossil fuels and nuclear power
does not include the cost of the damage and risks they create for the
environment and human health. Federal legislation should require that total
generation from renewable resources (wind, solar, biomass and geothermal,
excluding non-organic solid waste incineration and hydropower) equals at
least 2.5% by 2000, 10% by 2010, and 20% by 2020.
3. Congress should establish a public benefits fund to support long-term
investments in conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy
resources, which will yield significant non-market benefits to the
environment, public health, national security, and the economy. A federal
public benefits fund, implemented through a state-federal matching grant
program, would support energy efficiency, low-income customers, and research
and development on renewable energy and energy-related environmental issues.
4. Congress should require that all new and existing power plants meet
uniform national standards for carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, soot, mercury, radiation, and other hazardous and toxic emissions.
Current emissions from electric generators are preventing achievement of
important regional and global environmental and public health objectives.
Without adequate protection, increased competition among power suppliers
could result in power plants with weakest pollution controls gaining an
unfair advantage over cleaner plants. Emissions not included in the 1990
Clean Air Act amendments must be capped and reduced over time. Specifically,
the "grandfather" clause of the Clean Air Act must be eliminated, closing
the loophole for old coal plants.
5. Congress should require that all electricity suppliers disclose to
consumers important information regarding their electricity purchases. The
entrance of many companies into electricity markets creates the potential
for fraud, deceptive marketing, and the abuse of market power. Consumers
must be provided with information concerning their energy purchases that is
factual, objective, and understandable, so consumers can make informed
choices. All bills should disclose information on price, consumption, terms
of service, taxes, fees, fuel sources, emissions, environmental impacts and
radioactive waste production, in a way that is simple to understand.
6. Congress should guarantee universal, reliable, and quality electricity
service through strong consumer rights and protections. Electricity is a
necessity of modern life. Restructuring should go forward only if all
consumers share equitably in the costs and benefits. Strong residential
customer service safeguards and service quality standards must be maintained
and improved. Programs and mechanisms that enable residential customers with
low incomes to manage and afford essential electric service must be
institutionalized as a part of any industry restructuring.
7. Congress should increase funding for renewable energy and energy
efficiency and reduce subsidies for polluting technologies. Incentives to
develop and deploy clean power technologies should be maintained and
expanded. At the same time, federal tax and subsidy structures that favor
pollution generating technologies should be identified and eliminated. The
Production Tax Credit and the Renewable Energy Production Incentive for wind
power and biomass power should be extended for ten years and broadened to
encourage greater production from biomass. The Climate Change Technology
Initiative should be adopted.
8. Congress should enact uniform net-metering and grid-access and
interconnection standards. Net-metering allows customers to lower their
electricity bills using grid-connected renewable energy systems. A national
grid-access and interconnection standard will allow owners of renewable
power systems to safely and economically connect their systems to the grid.
9. Congress should require that all electricity suppliers have equal access
to transmissions systems and competitive markets. Transmission pricing must
ensure fair access and not discriminate against intermittent or distributed
resources such as wind and solar power. Transmission planning should
encourage energy efficiency and distributed generation over new transmission
lines. Transmission pricing and access information must be readily
accessible and transparent.
10. Congress should adopt federal energy, electricity restructuring, and
climate change policies that respect the sovereignty of American Indian
tribes, honor its treaty obligations and trust responsibilities for habitat
of tribal resources on reservation lands and in ceded territories, and
support tribal and intertribal efficiency, conservation, and development of
renewable energy resources. Congress should demonstrate its support for
tribal development of renewable and ecologically sustainable energy
resources through increased funding for the tribal provisions of the Energy
Policy Act of 1992.
11. Congress should ratify the Kyoto Accord on climate change as agreed to
by 170 nations. Scientific evidence clearly shows that climate change is
occurring and will have dangerous impacts on our regional economy and
natural resources. Research has shown that with proactive energy policies
that encourage investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy, carbon
emissions can be reduced to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2010 while
saving $40 billion per year, producing 800,00 new net jobs, and reducing
smog and acid rain emissions by half. Americans must take the lead in
reducing emissions domestically while encouraging developing nations to do
the same. Companies and citizens should be rewarded for taking early action
to reduce emissions. Congress should support continued research and public
education regarding global climate change, including the National Assessment
for Climate Change.
12. Congress and the Office of Surface Mining should ensure that strip
mining reclamation in our nationıs coal fields is not delayed. Effective
contemporaneous rules should be adopted and enforced. Congress should
require coal companies to apply for final bond release on strip-mined lands
in a timely manner. The contemporaneous reclamation provisions of the
Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1977 should be implemented and
enforced, and provisions should be added requiring final bond release
application in a timely manner.
List of Supporters
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Iowa:
Catholic Charities Diocese of Sioux City
Center for Energy and Environmental Education, U of Northern Iowa
Earth Care
Environmental Advocates
I-RENEW
Iowa Audubon
Iowa Citizen Action
Iowa Environmental Policy Project
Iowa Environmental Council
Iowa Student Environmental Council
Iowa SEED
Iowa Wind Energy Institute
Midwest Anti-Drift Coalition
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
Kansas:
Kansas Chapter of the Sierra Club
Kansas Natural Resource Council
Kansas Rural Center
Heartland Solar Energy Industries Association
Heartland Renewable Energy Society
Solar Electric Systems of Kansas City
SunLectric
Wolf River Environmental Society
Minnesota:
Alliance for Sustainability
City of Lake Benton
Communities United for Responsible Energy
Concerned River Valley Citizens
David Benson, Nobles County Commissioner
Energy CENTS Coalition
Focus 10,000
Grand Portage Reservation
Honor the Earth
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Izaak Walton League of America
Land Stewardship Project
Lincoln County Enterprise Development Corp.
Minnesota Clean Water Action
Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy
North American Water Office
Southwest Regional Development Commission
The Environment and Energy Resource Center
The Minnesota Project
Windustry
Nebraska:
Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law
Nebraskans for peace
Ecology NOW
Nebraska Citizen Action
Senator Chris Beutler
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
North Dakota:
Dakota Resources Council
EAPC Engineers
Intertribal Council on Utility Policy
North Dakota Clean Water Action
North Dakota Peace Coalition
Plaine State Energy
Sacred Heart Monastery
South Dakota:
ACTion for the Environment
Center for Permaculture as Native Science
Energy Maintenance Services, Inc.
Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition
South Dakota Resources Coalition
South Dakota Peace and Justice Center
Wisconsin:
Earth Energy Systems Ltd.
Global Energy Options
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
Oneida Tribes of Indians of Wisconsin
RENEW Wisconsin
Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter
Utility Reduction Specialists, INC
Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation
Wisconsin Green Party
Wisconsinıs Environmental Decade
Wisconsin Citizenıs Utility Board
Washington, DC:
Public Citizen
Union of Concerned Scientists
----------
Please add my name to the list of supporters of the High Plains SEED
Recommendations for Federal Energy Policy
Signature
Name (Please Print)
Organization Name
Address
City/State Zip
Phone
Date
Email
Please return this form to Eric Wesselman, Union of Concerned Scientists,
1707 H St., NW Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006-3919 or fax to 202-223-6162
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