CLEAN ENERGY

Salazar, Democrats Step Up

By Amy Brouillette, 6-17-05

In yesterday’s successful bid by Democrats to add a renewable energy portfolio to the energy bill now being kicked around on the Senate floor, Colorado’s freshman pick Sen. Ken Salazar once again proved his political promise. His constituents back home had already spoken loudly on green energy, making history last November by passing the country’s first voter-initiated renewable energy legislation. It was his turn yesterday to deliver the go-green message, along with 52 other senators (including nine Republicans and one Independent, minus two Democrats) who rallied behind an eco-friendly amendment that would require utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro and biomass by 2020.

The amendment, co-sponsored by New Mexico Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, is a modest proposal, as Salazar pointed out yesterday, compared to several state requirements (the new Colorado law requires 15 percent to come from renewables by 2020) and compared to what the latest renewable technology supports. Still, it is a key win—for both beleaguered Democrats and for renewable energy—that comes at a key time: the White House is scrambling to shore up a slowly crumbling political front that has for years kept real discussion over renewable energy off the table.

Meanwhile, the renewables package could be a stumbling block for the bill’s final passage, setting the stage for a showdown between the Senate and the House, which nixed a similar plan in its energy bill in April, and a pro-fossil fuel White House. It could also play a key role in the outcome the president's energy overhaul, one of two key tests (along with his social security reform) of just how much political capital remains in Bush's coffers.

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