clean energy

In the week since his State of the Union speech – where the topics of job creation, innovation, and clean energy, all which are hallmarks of competition, were a focus – President Obama has been on the road promoting specific initiatives to help achieve his broader energy agenda. On Thursday, he’ll visit Penn State University to acknowledge their ongoing efforts in energy innovation and highlight the importance of greater investment in clean energy.

Recent calls for Maryland to revert from a competitive electricity market to a monopoly system may be good-intentioned, but they are quite misguided. Innovation has replaced the inefficiencies of the old monopoly system, giving customers new choices, competitive prices and an efficient, reliable power supply.
 

A major Pennsylvania environmental group has endorsed competition’s benefits, just as rate caps expired across the state and millions of consumers gained the ability to shop for their electricity on January 1. PennFuture’s report, “Consumers Win: A Decade of Electricity Competition,” touts the success of competition, saying “the benefits to Pennsylvania ratepayers cannot be disputed.”
 

The federal government has the capability to transform America’s energy system within two decades through policies that stimulate energy technology innovation, according to a recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
 

A recent report forecasts rapid growth in jobs among the solar industry, and predicts competitive market states will lead the way in growing green jobs through clean energy innovation. The National Solar Jobs Census 2010 forecasts 24,000 net new jobs will be created over the next twelve months, a 26 percent increase over the 93,000 currently employed.
 

Competitive electricity markets are driving innovation, stimulating new investment, and delivering customer choice across North America, concludes the 2010 Annual Baseline Assessment of Choice in Canada and the United States (ABACCUS).
 

Pennsylvania’s organized electricity market unleashed “astounding” competition among energy market participants and switching rates among customers in 2010. However, with only two months remaining until all remaining artificial rate caps expire on January 1, 2011, the best may very well be yet to come.
 

Maine’s competitive electricity market is thriving, evidenced by several recently announced economic and environmental initiatives creating benefits for the state’s consumers.
 

A solar energy boom is taking place in California’s organized electricity market. Nine solar energy projects have been proposed in the state, totaling 4,300 megawatts (MW) of solar power – a remarkable total considering the total installed solar power capacity of the entire country totaled just over 2,000 MW in 2009.
 

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming featured a discussion on the role of competition in helping to move the United States toward a clean energy economy.
 
Committee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), cited the virtues of competition, calling it a “positive force” for advancing clean energy and suggesting it “will be the reason solar energy becomes equitable with the grid system.” Markey’s comments helped highlight the role competition plays in fostering innovation. “The kind of innovation that has been driving down the cost of electricity…is available only in America,” said Markey. “Technology always triumphs.”