Thursday, May 03, 2007

State of Colorado Turns "Green"

According to the Rocky Mountain News, the State of Colorado's Governor has recently signed onto more than 20 bills that have been approved in both the State House and Senate. The most important of the bills are: House Bill 1281, which doubled the state's renewable energy standard that had been approved under Amendment 37. Under the law, utilities in Colorado must now get 20 percent of their energy from renewable source, such as wind and solar, by 2020. House Bill 1341, which altered the makeup of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Under the bill, the oil and gas industry is no longer guaranteed a majority of seats on the commission. House Bill 1298, which makes protecting wildlife part of the mission of the oil and gas commission and gives Colorado's Division of Wildlife more say in how to insulate wildlife from the impacts of the fast-growing industry. Senate Bill 100, which clears the way for utilities to build more transmission lines to carry electricity generated from renewable energy sources, such as wind farms on the eastern plains.
This is one giant leap forward for the Green Movement and general environmentalist alike, in Colorado. But by issuing such non-industrial--namely oil--friendly policy, there is a real fear that industries will not want to remain operational nor be enticed to establish themselves within the State of Colorado. From an economics stand-point, this is true; there are little, if any, reasons for an oil company to move into Colorado. But the focus of this legislation is to bring renewable energy corporations into the state, and it gives them incentives to expand research on finding sustainable renewable energy sources. Under SB 100, utilities are providing basic infrastructure for transmittance of electricity from their sources; which may cause the wind farms on the eastern plains to expand their production and build more wind generators, and possibly allow for the development of more productive and efficient wind generators.
As the oil industry is obviously under attack by the Colorado Legislature, should more states pass legislation requiring increased renewable energy sources? How will this affect the economy of the nation?

1 comment:

Jiang said...

I think that the wind power can reduce the greenhouse necessary in the future. From the article we can see, the wind farm can generate to 7 percent of the US electricity within 15 years, and those can offset 4.5 percent of greenhouse. Suppose the fee of electricity will increase. However, the pollution get reduce is a potential benefit that will save the money which the government will pay to reduce the pollution.