Five Reasons Why We Need to Consider Ramping up Renewable Energy Beginning Today.
West Virginia’s electric utilities will publicly propose plans at the end of this year that set forth the power generating resources the utilities intend to employ over the next decade.
For at least the following five reasons, the utilities need to consider featuring in their plans a major ramping up of renewable energy and energy efficiency that begins today:
- Renewable energy is now cheap, and it’s continuing to get cheaper.
- Customers — both businesses and individuals — overwhelmingly are demanding renewable energy.
- Diversifying our power resource mix is critical to competing in the growing regional renewable energy economy and, more broadly, securing a place in the 21st century energy economy.
- The financial risk posed by emissions from power plants is growing due to majority public support for bipartisan proposals to address climate change by charging fees for carbon dioxide emissions. These fees would necessarily hit coal-fired power plants hardest because those plants emit the most carbon dioxide.
- Major lenders and investors increasingly are withholding capital from utilities that aren’t transitioning away from emission-heavy resource mixes.
Any long-term plan that does not adequately account for these five considerations will risk unnecessary costs for West Virginia customers and missed economic opportunities for West Virginia workers and businesses.
Please read the complete Background section in the full West Virginia’s Energy Future report.