{"id":525051,"date":"2010-04-12T07:52:42","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T11:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3278"},"modified":"2010-04-12T07:52:42","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T11:52:42","slug":"conn-considers-rolling-back-portfolio-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/525051","title":{"rendered":"Conn. considers rolling back portfolio requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/08\/connecticut-mulls-rollback-on-clean-energy\/?ref=earth\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/blogs\/greeninc\/solarct.jpg\" width=\"328\" align=\"right\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/Greenwire\/2010\/04\/09\/17\/\" >Greenwire<\/a>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Ecoregions_of_Massachusetts,_Connecticut,_and_Rhode_Island_%28EPA%29\">Connecticut<\/a> may become the first state to lower the amount of  electricity it mandates must come from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Renewable_energy\">renewable sources<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A bill that has passed through committee in the current legislative  session, which is slated to end May 5, would cut the state&#8217;s renewable  portfolio standard by nearly half.<\/p>\n<p>Currently the state has an ambitious goal of obtaining a fifth of  its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. When Connecticut first  crafted the goal a few years ago, it became the leader in the renewable  energy push, though <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Ecoregions_of_Colorado_%28EPA%29\">Colorado<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Energy_profile_of_California,_United_States\">California<\/a> have since instituted their  own 30 percent goals.<\/p>\n<p>But supporters of the rollback initiative say meeting the goal has  meant state utilities mostly purchase renewable energy from outside the  state, since the region&#8217;s climate and lack of land make it a poor site  for solar and wind installations. And a 2003 plan to construct a  150-megawatt project that would have included 13 plants that are mostly  fuel cells and biomass has been stalled by a lack of financing.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental groups are pushing back against the proposed  legislation. &#8220;This would mark Connecticut as the only state in the  nation moving backward,&#8221; said Christopher Phelps, program director for  Environment Connecticut, an environmental advocacy group.<\/p>\n<p>If a national renewable energy standard is approved by Congress &#8212;  an idea that has been backed by Obama &#8212; it would put the state at a  disadvantage, Phelps said. There is also a concern that a lowered  renewable energy goal will lead to a drop in investments in renewable  projects altogether.<\/p>\n<p>The bill would funnel the money that utilities would have spent to  achieve the standard and use it to fund no-interest loans for consumers  to purchase renewable and energy-efficient products.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-one states have renewable portfolio standards (Jan Ellen  Spiegel, <a href=\"http:\/\/greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/08\/connecticut-mulls-rollback-on-clean-energy\/?ref=earth\" ><em>New  York Times<\/em><\/a>, April 8). <strong>&#8211; DFM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3278&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3278\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greenwire: Connecticut may become the first state to lower the amount of electricity it mandates must come from renewable sources. A bill that has passed through committee in the current legislative session, which is slated to end May 5, would cut the state&#8217;s renewable portfolio standard by nearly half. Currently the state has an ambitious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}