Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to adopt an amendment that would require retail electric suppliers to supply 15 percent of their electricity through renewable resources by 2020.

Highlights:

• Defines a retail electric supplier as a supplier that sells at least one million megawatt-hours of electric energy to consumers for purposes other than resale, excluding suppliers that are government entities or rural electric cooperatives.

• Requires retail electric suppliers to have 2.75 percent of their electricity produced using renewable energy resources by 2010 and 2011 or to reach this mark by obtaining energy efficiency credits, and to gradually increase this percentage to 15 percent by 2020.

• Defines Federal Energy Efficiency Credits as credits issued by the Secretary of Energy that satisfy the renewable energy requirement and may be obtained either through issuance by the Secretary of Energy, by purchase, by exchange, or through borrowing.

• Establishes that the Secretary of Energy shall issue one Federal renewable energy credit for each kilowatt-hour of electric energy generated by a generator of electric energy, provided the generator also indicates the type of renewable energy resource used to produce the electricity and the location where the electricity was produced.

• Establishes that the Secretary of Energy may also issue two renewable energy credits to suppliers on Indian land for each kilowatt-hour of electricity generated if the renewable energy resource is also located on Indian land.

• Establishes that the Secretary of Energy may also issue renewable energy credits for electric suppliers based on the proportion of renewable and non-renewable energy resources.

• Establishes that Federal Energy Efficiency Credits may either be purchased from the Secretary of Energy or traded among retail electric suppliers, and tracked in all transactions by the Department of Energy.

• Allows a retail electric supplier who cannot meet the renewable energy requirements for the current calendar year to borrow credits by submitting a plan to the Secretary of Energy demonstrating it can meet the necessary Federal efficiency credits within 3 years.

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text