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Rendell administration makes another push for costly solar mandate
Chamber members urge free market approach to alternative energy
On Wednesday, Sept. 1, Gov. Ed Rendell held a news conference to push for legislation that would increase solar energy mandates in the Commonwealth. Acknowledging that broader legislation (H.B. 2405 and its predecessor, H.B. 80) did not have enough support to pass, the governor urged passage of a solar-only mandate. The governor wants to triple solar power usage by 2022 by increasing the amount of solar electricity that utilities must purchase from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent.
PA Chamber members oppose the government mandate/subsidy approach to energy policy, which under the Rendell administration means heavily subsidizing and mandating a market for one form of energy while attempting to impose taxes on another form (natural gas from the Marcellus Shale).
PA Chamber Vice President Gene Barr told Capitolwire such mandates are nothing more than "government picking winners and losers."
"Giving today's technology a guaranteed market potentially shuts off the growth of tomorrow's technology, " he said. "No one knows what the most effective energy source will be in fifteen years. Any entity, including the solar industry, will be loath to give up a mandated share of the market even if it is abundantly clear they are not the most cost-effective technology."
(The desire to promote the best approach to energy policy was one of the reasons for the creation of PA Chamber's Green Initiative, which seeks to foster alternative energy within the framework of the free enterprise system.)
Senate leaders expressed doubt that the new solar-only mandate would pass. Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati said in the same Capitolwire article, "I think our current law has an adequate standard in place. I think we got it right the first time. I think from here on, we should let the market decide."
PA Chamber members’ concerns with energy mandates are explained here.
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Founded in 1916, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is the state's largest broad-based business association, with its membership comprising businesses of all sizes and across all industry sectors. The PA Chamber is The Statewide Voice of Business.
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