NEW BILL TO ENACT ENERGY STANDARDS, CREATE GREEN JOBS

A new bill facing the Indiana General Assembly could create thousands of new jobs by requiring 20 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable or energy-efficient resources by 2020.

The Green Jobs Development Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dvorak, D-South Bend, and State Senators Sue Errington, D-Muncie and Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, aims to push Indiana into the renewable energy sector so it can be on par with other states.

“Indiana is the only state in the Midwest without a comprehensive policy on renewable energy and energy efficiency,” said Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council. “We’re accordingly losing out on opportunities to attract green businesses, create green jobs and reduce our toxic emissions, which are in the top five in the country.”

The Environmental Council is pushing for the General Assembly to pass the bill to combat Indiana’s overreliance on fossil fuels and make the state a more favorable climate for investments in green energy, Kharbanda said.

Two main components of the act are a renewable electricity standard, which requires utility companies to generate a portion of their electricity using renewable energy or energy-efficient sources, and a more widespread use of net metering, which allows businesses and private citizens to be compensated at retail price for electricity they generate themselves.

Errington said Indiana relies on coal for 97 percent of its electricity supply, making it the most coal-reliant state. Congress is expected to impose stricter regulations on carbon emissions soon, and the final version of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package will likely include provisions for green energy development, Errington said.

“This is a way to diversify so that when new regulations go into effect, we won’t be so reliant on one type of electricity,” she said.

If passed, the bill would also create jobs in the construction, operation and maintenance of wind farms and biomass plants, Kharbanda said. Manufacturing jobs would also be created to produce the components for these and other energy efficiency systems.

For the average Hoosier, this bill would mean lower energy costs, more jobs for skilled workers and a dynamic economy that keeps college graduates engaged in Indiana, he said.

More than 1,300 manufacturing businesses in Indiana could be altered to produce renewable energy, which would create more than 39,000 new jobs statewide, according to a 2008 report from the Renewable Energy Policy Project.

Indiana has the second highest potential in the country for creating these jobs, according to the report.

The bill has been assigned to the Commerce, Energy, Technology and Utilities Committee in the House and the Utilities and Technology Committee in the Senate.

Concerns in the committees are likely to include costs to businesses and consumers. Errington said concern among legislators will likely be for the coal industry, which provides many jobs in Indiana.

Using net metering, consumers who generate their own electricity through the use of solar panels or windmills can recycle their excess energy back to an electrical grid.

A meter keeps track of how much energy consumers generate, and they are subsequently compensated for the surplus at retail price. The bill will give more people the opportunity to participate in this practice and increase the amount of electricity they are allowed to generate.

The costs of net metering include the purchase of equipment for the consumer and administrative costs for the utility company. But consumers will save money on energy expenses in the long run as they are reimbursed for their electricity and as the state becomes less dependent on coal, said Kharbanda.

Dave Scanzoni, a spokesman for Duke Energy, the largest electricity provider in Indiana, said that the passage of a Renewable Energy Standard is unlikely to hurt business.

Duke gets about 1 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, but the company is pursuing major plans to increase that percentage, Scanzoni said.

“We would move more aggressively into the renewable energy sector,” Scanzoni said. “We are very supportive of state renewable energy laws.”

Duke was actually involved in the passage of a similar piece of legislation in North Carolina, where the company is headquartered, Scanzoni said.

For Errington, the bill’s passage is an opportunity to take advantage of what she describes as the path to the future.

“Indiana is so well-situated for this type of action,” Errington said. “We just need to provide some incentive. I think we can be a leader.”

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