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About Us |
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What is the balanced solution?
Electric cooperatives propose reducing carbon dioxide emissions dramatically, but doing so in a way that softens the impact to already soaring energy costs:
1. Achievable emission caps and timelines. Targets during the first 15 years of a climate program should reflect the expected availability of technology. Legislation should also allow sufficient time for the EPA, other agencies, and covered sectors to establish regulations and prepare for the implementation of the program.
2. Robust cost containment measures to promote economic sustainability. The best method of assuring cost certainty is the inclusion of an economic safety valve. A safety valve limits the potentially destabilizing impacts of a cap-and-trade program on energy prices and ensures affordability of electricity to our member-consumers.
3. Offset credits to provide flexibility. The inclusion of workable domestic and international offset credit programs will provide covered sectors flexibility in planning cost-effective investments in low-carbon technologies and reduce costs to consumers. Workable domestic and international offset programs are critical to protecting consumers, particularly in the early years of a climate program.
4. Establish a single, integrated program. A workable piece of legislation will ensure that regulated entities understand the "rules of the road" and know who the "traffic cop" is on that road. To make new legislation workable, it should not simply be layered upon existing law at the federal, state, or local level. Therefore, climate change legislation should establish a single, organic new law that establishes the sole legal and regulatory requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
5. Technology Development and Deployment Incentives. To make greenhouse gas reduction requirements achievable, we will need new, cost-effective technologies to reduce emissions. Including significant incentives for new technologies will be critical to the sustainability of any new legislation and the achievability of the emissions reductions.
6. Commitment to nuclear power. As we move toward a carbon-constrained world, the need for baseload power generation will only grow. Nuclear energy provides a carbon-free source of reliable electricity to feed growing demand, but it will take a financial and regulatory commitment on the part of the federal government to develop a strong fleet of new nuclear-fueled power plants.
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