Corresponding on the environment for Reuters, Deborah Zabarenko (with editing by Stacey Joyce) notes U.S. industry executives from the wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and biomass sectors are pushing for another reconsideration of a federal renewable energy standard. Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association asserts that such energy policy would benefit the U.S. economy in addition to bolstering American renewable energy efforts when China is moving swiftly into the global alternative energy market. “The Chinese activity really lends an urgency to helping Congress and the administration to act on a renewable energy standard,” she said.

Denise Bode
Photo Credit: Sarah Beth Glicksteen / The Christian Science Monitor

While 2009 was generally a year of expansion for renewable U.S. energy firms, Bode said, Chinese companies outpaced their competitors. China surpassed Germany to become the world’s biggest builder of wind turbines and it added the largest amount of new generating capacity. Some 30 countries — including China and most European Union countries have such policy in place, yet dominance by special interests in the U.S. Congress has frustrated previous attempts to establish a federal renewable energy standard.

Since previous failed attempts in the U.S. Congress, 29 states already have renewable energy standards. Also known as RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) such policy requires that a percentage of the energy sold in must come from renewable sources. President Barack Obama has urged Congress to set a national standard requiring 25 percent renewable power by 2025. But, even though it hampers U.S. competitiveness in this increasingly important economic sector lawmakers have yet to act, which is why, at a time when there is a consensus that the Economy is key, Bode, et al stress to policymakers that a renewable energy standard will create U.S. jobs in manufacturing and installation.

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