Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010

Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Tom Udall (D-NM) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) have introduced a bill in the US Senate that would create a national renewable electricity standard (RES). Bill S. 3813 is titled the “Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010″. It proposes amending the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to include a federal RES that would require electric utilities to obtain a specific percentage of the total quantity of electricity sold to electric consumers in a calendar year from renewable energy sources. This is known within the industry as “base quantity”. The bill proposes that in most states, the annual percentage would starts at 3% and increase incrementally to a max level of 15%, from 2021 through 2036. Those states that already have an RES in place that is higher than the proposed RES would not be affected by the bill. Also, utilities that sell less than 4 million MWh per year would be exempt