Senator Udall looks to revive renewable power mandate
Sen. Tom Udall is drafting legislation that would require a portion of the nation’s electricity mix to be generated from renewable sources.
Udall (D-N.M.), who’s been working to pass a so-called renewable electricity standard (RES) since he was in the House, said yesterday he’s working on a new version of the legislation.
“It’s going to be updated based on everything everybody’s been looking at and how things have grown over time,” he told E&E News yesterday in a brief interview. “You always update.”
A Udall spokesman said the bill will be a “more aggressive standard” with a new structure. The senator is aiming to introduce it next month.
Last month, a top aide to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) signaled that there were new efforts to legislate on an electricity mandate (E&E News PM, March 20).
Udall said yesterday he believes there is a “good chance” he can get some Republican support for the bill. “That’s part of the reason I’m looking at it,” he said.
The Senate last voted on a Udall RES bill in 2015, when it rejected 45-53 an amendment to Keystone XL legislation that would have established a federal RES of 25% by 2025.
The House in 2009 passed a broad climate bill that included an RES of 20% by 2020, but the measure did not receive a vote in the Senate.
A comprehensive energy bill that passed the ENR Committee in 2009 included an RES of 15% by 2021, but it, too, stalled and never received a floor vote.
In a nod to the new Republican-led House, President Obama called for a clean energy standard (CES) of 80% by 2035 during his annual State of the Union address, with the list of qualifying sources expanded to include natural gas, nuclear and clean coal.
At the time, the leaders of the ENR Committee solicited comments on how a CES should be structured, but there wasn’t enough agreement between the two sides to draft an actual bill.
A Udall spokesman said the bill will be a “more aggressive standard” with a new structure. The senator is aiming to introduce it next month.