Technology Innovation

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).
 

The movement to restore Michigan’s competitive electricity market is growing, with state legislators and businesses taking action in the fight to roll back a poorly conceived statewide cap on competition. 
 

Beware of organized competitive electricity market critics who claim to speak for all consumers. They certainly do not speak for the growing contingent of COMPETE customer members who are helping communicate the economic and environmental benefits, and the technological innovation, that competition in electricity is delivering.

During a recent conference sponsored by Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), two representatives of COMPETE’s roster of customer members, manufacturer Leggett & Platt and retailer Wal-Mart, discussed how electricity competition saves money for consumers, stimulates renewable energy, and encourages innovation.

The COMPETE Coalition has long advocated competition in electricity as integral to unlocking technology innovation, development and jobs growth - as we all experienced when competition was injected into telecommunications and other formerly monopoly industry sectors. So we are especially enthusiastic when other voices join us in underscoring this important policy point, as when the Environmental Defense Fund joined us in highlighting the link between competition, technology innovation and environmental benefits.

Now NDN, an influential Democratic policy think tank, has released a comprehensive report pointing to competition in our nation's electricity markets as the launching pad for innovation, such as smart grid technologies and greater development of renewable energy. The report, Electricity 2.0, finds that monopoly protections and hybrid competition in a state-by-state patchwork thwart market entry of new clean energy generation and technologies. Instead, NDN advocates an "Open Energy Network" that would allow competition to provide environmental, economic and technological benefits for the entire country.