Alternative Energy

In August this year, the United States House of Representatives had passed a bill unanimously that required all the operational utility companies registered in the United States to produce at least 15 percentage of the total amount of their electricity from renewable resources such as the wind or the sun by the year 2020.

The bill faced a strong opposition from the electric utility companies as well as the White House which has already threatened to veto the same. The bill passed with a 241-172 motion in the house. It is also learnt that only nine democrats opposed the bill as against Twenty Six Republican members who voted in favor of the bill.

In a somewhat surprising comment from the White House, they accused the bill of making “no serious attempts to increase our energy security”. This defies commonsense as by producing more electricity from domestic renewable sources rather than with imported natural gas by definition increases the United States’ diversity and security of energy supply.

While on the other hand, a senior analyst for Lazard Capital Markets described the bill as “a significant positive step towards creating a cohesive energy policy.”

However, the new renewable electricity standard shall be applicable for investor owned utilities and not rural electric co-operatives or for that matter municipal utilities, the act also exempts the Tennessee Valley Authority and the state of Hawaii.

The bill had also covered two important loopholes, that critics had long been pointing out for being exploited by the oil companies, in relation with the income from foreign oil production.