The environmental and energy landscape has changed mightily in just a few years, and PennFuture has had a major role in making it happen.
In our first year as an organization, renewable energy was practically non-existent in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania electricity customers were on the brink of being able to shop for power instead of being assigned an electricity supplier. Our goal was to guarantee that there would be clean renewable energy to be purchased, and that clean energy would become a larger portion of the electricity supply every year.
Now, less than 10 years later, Pennsylvania has a vibrant and growing renewable energy sector. In fact, Pennsylvania now is a recognized national leader in clean energy – with the Commonwealth’s mountaintops home to the second largest wind energy market east of the Mississippi. And PennFuture has helped bring every one of those wind farms to fruition.
To move our state so far – and so fast – took all the arrows in PennFuture’s quiver:
public outreach and education;
legislative action;
court and regulatory intervention;
technical assistance and
strategic communications strategies.
Our accomplishments, and the growth of the renewable energy industry in Pennsylvania, have happened in three major categories:
Public policy changes
PennFuture's staff and supporters worked tirelessly for 18 months to see House Bill 2200, the energy savings bill, passed in October of 2008. The bill gives Pennsylvanians tools and technologies needed to help get high electricity costs under control and was passed in advance of the removal of electric rate caps. The bill's passage will also result in decreased pollution and creation of green jobs.
We helped pass the Alternative Energy Investment Act, a $650 million energy fund that includes $180 million for solar and front loads most of the investment into the first two years after its enactment. Pennsylvania now has a major solar program and substantial funds to support other alternative energy projects. Almost as soon as the legislation passed, PennFuture started receiving calls and emails from homeowners who want to install solar energy systems.
Knowing how important it is to cut our dependence on fossil fuels, PennFuture worked for the passage of House Bill 1202, which requires that transportation fuels sold in Pennsylvania include increasing amounts of cellulosic ethanol in gasoline and biodiesel in diesel fuel.
Special Session Senate Bill 22 extends the Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant Program (AFIG) so Pennsylvania biodiesel producers will be eligible for incentives.
These policies level the playing field for Pennsylvania farmers and producers and enable them to grow their industry and offer increasing amounts of home-grown fuels for home heating and transportation. Oh, and by the way, they make us less dependent on foreign oil (and coincidentally, were passed in time for Independence Day 2008).
After years of work, PennFuture saw fruits of labor in a busy July of 2008. The Pennsylvania Climate Change Act, our first-ever state level legislation on global warming, was signed into law. This new law requires our Commonwealth to conduct an inventory of the sources and amounts of its global warming pollution, set up a registry that will allow businesses and industries to track their emissions and get credit when they reduce their pollution, create the Climate Change Action Committee (CCAC) to advise the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) about the implementation of the Act and charge DEP with developing a state plan to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gasses.
The 2004 passage of the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS), which requires ever increasing percentages of specific renewable energy sources to be part of the electricity supply in Pennsylvania, was a major economic and environmental victory. For more than three years, PennFuture shepherded this legislation from the point of beginning discussion, through negotiations with business, industry and elected officials to adoption of the law. One hallmark of the AEPS is the large requirement for solar power, which is expected to build a new energy industry in the state.
But PennFuture has also worked to guarantee that the implementation of the AEPS was done in way that would build the renewable energy and protect consumers. We testified, participated in working groups and negotiated to make sure that the rules governing personal power – called net metering – made it beneficial for customers to create their own renewable energy, and be able to sell any excess back to the electric companies at the retail rate. The Pennsylvania PUC adopted such rules in June, 2006, creating a great incentive for renewable energy users.
PennFuture also led the drive for state funding to build renewable energy. In 2003, Pennsylvania created the Energy Harvest program, providing $5 million each year for renewable energy development; in 2004, Pennsylvania revived the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, which also provides a minimum of $5 in grants and loans for renewable energy investments.
In 2005, PennFuture led the statewide coalition which successfully passed a $625 million bond measure called Growing Greener II, the largest investment the state has ever made in the environment. Renewable energy has received $60 million from that fund.
Promoting renewable energy in the marketplace
PennFuture believes in leading by example. We have long used only renewable electricity to power our four offices, with the Harrisburg office also producing green energy with a solar power plant on the roof. The plant is connected to the PPL electric distribution grid, and the extra electricity is delivered back to the grid. PennFuture has also installed a state-of-the-art device, invented by PennFuture member Stan Budney, which increases the efficiency of its Harrisburg building’s electric heat pump heating and cooling system. PennFuture uses up to 20 percent less electricity with this digital load controller. PennFuture is also the first public interest group in the state to “go carbon neutral,” balancing the CO2 (carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas) it releases through energy use like driving, flying, heating, lighting, shipping, etc., by reducing energy use and by replacing the energy used with new clean renewable energy.
But some examples speak louder than others. So PennFuture has worked to have large institutions, businesses and government agencies help build the renewable energy marketplace by buying green.
Over the years, we’ve been very successful, starting in May, 2001, when Carnegie-Mellon University announced it was making what was then the nation’s largest retail green energy purchase, replacing five percent of its electricity with wind power. Since then, nearly every college and university in the state has joined in, along with grocery chains, government entities and small and large businesses throughout Pennsylvania. In 2003, PECO, the Philadelphia electricity supplier, began offering PECO WIND - Pennsylvania wind energy - directly to its customers; more than 28,000 Philadelphia area customers have decided to switch to clean energy.
Pennsylvania itself has joined the ranks of renewable energy purchasers with a vengeance. First, the Governor agreed to buy five percent of the state’s energy supply from renewable sources, then 10 percent. In August, 2006 the Governor announced that the state would once again double its commitment, with 20 percent of all electricity used by the Commonwealth coming from clean renewable sources. By mid 2008, the Commonwealth was buying 30 percent and the governor committed to buying 50 percent by mid 2010. Pennsylvania now leads the nation in state purchases of renewables.
PennFuture has played a huge education and technical assistance role in building the renewable market, including numerous workshops on buying renewable energy across the state. Every year, PennFuture holds its “Green Power: Turn it On!” Awards Luncheon, honoring the green energy heroes who are buying and making renewable energy.
We have spread the word across the region, making it easy for any customer, large or small, to switch to clean energy at our Clean Your Air Web site. And we educate policy makers and the public about the ongoing clean energy revolution through “E3: The Newsletter on Energy, Economy and the Environment,” published bi-weekly, and “Green Power Update,” published quarterly.
Legal cases building investments in the renewable energy market
Through a series of legal cases, we have increased investments and incentives for renewable energy by $188 million. The 2000 Exelon merger case meant $32 million for renewables, including $12 million for wind energy, which has led to $180 million of wind investment in the Keystone State, and $4 million for solar power investment.
In 2002, the FirstEnergy case returned $15 million for renewable energy.
The pending Exelon – PSEG merger will mean $29 million for renewable energy and energy conservation.
All told, PennFuture’s work has changed the Pennsylvania energy landscape forever. So, make the switch to clean energy. And join us as we do even more.
