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Governors Support Clean, Diversified Energy for the
West
July 8, 2006
The Western Governors Association (WGA) endorsed a
policy resolution on June 11 at its annual meeting in Sedona,
Arizona, that sets ambitious goals for renewable energy and energy
efficiency in the region:
- Add 30,000 megawatts of capacity from renewable
energy resources by 2015.
- Increase the energy efficiency of the region's
economies by 20 percent by 2020.
- Build transmission capacity to allow for the
growth of renewable energy generation.
- Position the energy system in the West to respond
to new environmental challenges, including potential limitation on
emissions.
The WGA issued the resolution after its Clean and
Diversified Energy Advisory Committee published a long-awaited
report in May about how western states could meet these goals. The
committee had formed a series of task forces over the last year that
examined options related to solar energy, wind, biomass, geothermal,
advanced goal, energy efficiency, and transmission. The committee
report identified cost-effective energy efficiency measures that
would reduce the load growth in the region from 2 percent per year
to less than 0.5 percent. Furthermore, these efficiency measures
will save consumers and businesses billions. Finally, the WGA
resolution recommends nine federal policy measures that would foster
investment in clean energy. Read the WGA policy statement (PDF 35
KB).
http://www.westgov.org/wga/policy/06/clean-energy.pdf |
