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The Alliance for Renewable Energy (ARE), a coalition of businesses, non-profits, energy experts, legislators and citizens, was launched on October 12th at a pre-event of the Solar Power International 2008 conference in San Diego, California. ARE's mission is to promote Renewable Energy Payments (REPs), also known as Feed-in Tariffs, legislation in states and provinces throughout the U.S. and Canada.
"Our mission is to bring REPs to North America where they can help to rapidly increase our shift from fossil fuels to renewables, and in doing so improve our energy security and generate hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs."
-- Lois Barber & Paul Gipe, Co-chairs, ARE
Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) are in place as legislative policies in more than 40 countries. Lois Barber and Paul Gipe, co-chairs of ARE, said in a statment, “REPs have proven to be the most widespread and effective legislation for the promotion of renewables. Our mission is to bring REPs to North America where they can help to rapidly increase our shift from fossil fuels to renewables, and in doing so improve our energy security and generate hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs.”
ARE will build on the recent passage of federal renewable investment and production tax credits by urging policymakers to now focus on proven policies that have led to the rapid deployment of renewable energy throughout the world. REPs can be introduced at the state, provincial, and municipal level.
ARE is promoting REP legislation in many states, including, California, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Washington, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.
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Even so, the poor are going to benefit disproportionately from the improved air quality of renewable energy because they have up to now suffered disproportionately from the existing systems of production. So it's not quite the one-sided development it appears.
I support FIT, for clean-air reasons, as Jon Seehafer has mentioned above, but for other reasons as well.
Distributed energy and micro-grids are better for places where the grid is at risk of going down, e.g., old, poor neighborhoods with overhead lines.
Ideally, one guy would have a good enough roof and some spare bucks so his neighbors could party at his house if the grid fails. Who wants to eat ice cream by herself in a dark house?
Poor folks often have more health problems, making the risk of power interruption a bigger problem, especially for the working, isolated poor.
While affluent working people can go to a hotel, this isn't even going to occur to working poor. They will freeze or fry, depending on the season.
Older women tend to remain poor, but in other age and gender groups, there is more mobility than one might think.
The poor are not monolithic. One cannot tell what they would say for themselves about FIT without polling them.
Full disclosure: I made so little working part-time as a health coach in low-income housing last year that I didn't get a stimulus payment. My officially poor participants did get stimulus payments. This is a tricky demographic, when one speaks of the poor.
I will sign up for track-back. I hope the authors will read and respond to these comments. Thanks.
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