ALEC takes aim at state green power standards

The conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is launching an effort to repeal state-based laws that require utilities to provide escalating amounts of power from renewable sources like wind and solar energy.

The corporate-backed group of state lawmakers has developed so-called model legislation called the “Electricity Freedom Act,” which it hopes to advance in several of the roughly 30 states that have renewable electricity standards.

Todd Wynn, staff director of ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force, told E2-Wire that the election could provide chances to advance the bill in states including Montana and North Carolina if Republicans there win races for governor.

Midwest Energy News reported at length Monday on the effort.

Wynn said the new bill is based on ALEC’s opposition to “mandates that force politically preferred energy sources over others.”

“[F]orcing business, industry, and ratepayers to use renewable energy through a government mandate will increase the cost of doing business and push companies to do business with other states or nations, thereby decreasing American competitiveness,” the bill states, calling the state standards “essentially a tax” on consumers.

But green energy advocates say the state standards have boosted green energy without hurting consumers’ pocketbooks.

An analysis by the liberal Center for American Progress, citing Energy Information Administration data, found that state standards did not have a “statistically significant” impact on electricity rate changes between 2000 and 2010.

“We will be working with our allies on the ground to defend these standards,” said Marchant Wentworth, the deputy legislative director for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

ALEC brings together companies and conservative state lawmakers who develop bills on a range of topics. The group has task forces on education, energy, communications, tax policy and other topics.