Full Title: Setting the Renewable Energy Policy Agenda: Insights from ACORE's 2015 National Renewable Energy Policy Forum
Author(s): American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
Publisher(s): American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
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Description (excerpt):
Over just a few decades, U.S. government policy has helped the domestic renewable energy industry become a serious competitor in the national energy marketplace. By supporting the increased production of homegrown renewable fuels, heat, and electricity, such policies have spurred greater diversity in the nation’s energy portfolio, more resilient and reliable energy markets, greater consumer choice, reduced emissions, and economic growth. While renewable energy is showing remarkable growth and attracting widespread support, renewable energy policy remains vitally important to its continued success.
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) hosted its annual National Renewable Energy Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2015, bringing together a range of renewable energy industry stakeholders and policymakers – including three U.S. senators, senior government officials, and energy industry and utility CEOs – to deliberate, develop, and advance the critical policy priorities necessary for the industry’s near- and long-term success. Throughout the Forum, speakers continually returned to a few common themes:
–We appear to be in a new energy era, with rapidly expanding renewable energy deployment driven by increasing cost competitiveness powered by technological, financial, and policy innovations.
–Policy consistency and clarity build confidence and attract capital, yet renewable energy policies right now, especially at the federal level, are anything but consistent and clear.
–State policies continue to have an important influence on deployment of renewable energy and distributed generation, as well as on how the grid can adapt to accommodate this new generation.
The theme of policy consistency was particularly salient. As with mature, conventional energy resources, which continue to receive strong policy support and benefit from permanent incentives written into the tax code, the renewable energy industry needs stable, consistent, long-term policy at all levels to optimize investment, development, and deployment, and to continue to scale up and move strongly into the future.
This paper summarizes and builds on consensus from the Forum about the continued importance of renewable energy policy and presents a path for the next phase of federal and state government support.