Year 4, Month 4, Day 2: A Good Guy

Pennsylvania Rep. Greg Vitali has some good ideas, which he outlines in the Delco Times:

House Bill 100 would amend the Pennsylvania Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard Act to require Pennsylvania electric distribution companies like PECO and PP&L to obtain 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2023. The requirement is currently 8 percent by 2021.

Increasing its Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) is the most effective way for Pennsylvania to expand its production of renewable energy. Many other states have already increased their renewable energy standards. New Jersey will require 17.88 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2021.

H.B. 100 would accomplish the equivalent of taking more than 4 million cars off the road, according to the Penn-Future energy center.

The cost of Pennsylvania’s AEPS is relatively small. The PennFuture energy center estimated that the cost of implementing the AEPS in 2011 was only 6.6 cents per month for residential consumers. In contrast, the damage from Superstorm Sandy was estimated to be as high as $60 billion.

A second renewable energy bill (H.B. 200) would provide $25 million per year to the Pennsylvania Sunshine Solar program. This popular program has provided rebates to homeowners and small businesses that install solar systems. The program was initially funded by a $100 million bond issue in 2008 but it has run out of money. The new funding would come from the recently enacted Marcellus shale impact fee.

Orchids where they’re deserved. March 21:

Common-sense legislation like Rep. Greg Vitali’s alternative energy bills should be enacted throughout the United States. Unfortunately, far too many American politicians have been co-opted by the fossil fuel industry, which has invested heavily in lobbying and misinformation efforts aimed at discrediting both climate science and the viability of renewable energy sources. Since corporations don’t own the wind or sun and cannot expect to profit from renewable energy programs, their opposition is understandable — but unforgivable.

Climate change is not just a hypothesis, but a gravely dangerous reality, and while it’s decades too late for us to avert the catastrophic consequences of a runaway greenhouse effect, we can and must act rapidly to stop exacerbating the situation further by adding yet more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Lawmakers who are beholden to Big Oil and Big Coal are on the wrong side of history — and the wrong side of science.

Warren Senders