State renewable energy requirements and goals: Update through 2009
To the extent possible, AEO2010 incorporates the impacts of State laws requiring the addition of renewable generation or capacity by utilities doing business in the States. Currently, 30 States and the District of Columbia have enforceable RPS or similar laws (Table 2). Under such standards, each State determines its own levels of generation, eligible technologies, and noncompliance penalties. AEO2010 includes the impacts of all laws in effect as of September 2009 (with the exception of Hawaii, because NEMS provides electricity market projections for the continental United States only). 

In the AEO2010 Reference case, States generally meet their ultimate RPS targets. RPS compliance in most regions is approximated, because NEMS is not a State-level model, and each State represents only a portion of one of the NEMS regions, which are composed of multiple States. Compliance costs in each region are tracked, and the projection for total renewable generation is checked for consistency with any State-level cost-control provisions, such as caps on renewable credit prices, limits on State compliance funding, or impacts on consumer electricity prices. 

States that have enacted new laws include the following: 

Kansas. House Bill 2369 [20] established a capacity-based renewable electricity goal that requires 20 percent of capacity to be from renewable resources by 2020. In-State renewable capacity resources will count as 1.1 megawatts of capacity for every megawatt of nameplate capacity. Although other States, such as Texas and Iowa, have had capacity-based renewable targets before, Kansas specifies the capacity goal as a fraction of installed capacity rather than as a fixed quantity of capacity. Most of the RPS programs included in AEO2010 are based on electricity generation; however, for modeling purposes EIA converted the capacity targets to approximate generation equivalents, assuming that wind will be the primary com-pliance resource.

West Virginia. In June 2009, the West Virginia legislation enacted House Bill 103 [21], an “alternative and renewable energy portfolio standard.” The law allows certain types of coal or coal-based gases to compete to meet the same target as wind and other re-newable resources. Eligible resources must meet 25 percent of electricity sales by 2025. Although other States have included nonrenewable resources in their policies, they have a separate “tier” or target schedule for the fossil resources. Because it lacks a distinct renewable energy target and presents capacity ex-pansion requirements largely consistent with the underlying assumptions for AEO2010, the legislation is not specifically reflected in AEO2010.

States with significant modifications to existing laws include the following:

Illinois. The Illinois Commerce Commission issued additional regulations in implementing the existing Illinois RPS [22] with Order 09-0432 [23] and now applies the renewable targets to sales outside an energy service provider’s territory, not just to sales by default service providers.

Maine. With the passage of LD 1075 [24], Maine now counts generation from eligible community-owned resources toward meeting the RPS requirements, at a rate of 1.5 kilowatthours for every kilowatthour of actual generation.

Massachusetts. On December 3, 2009, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources [25] placed a temporary hold on the consideration of certain new biomass plants to meet the State’s RPS requirement. Because the action occurred after the AEO2010 Reference case results were finalized, and because it is a temporary measure, EIA did not include it in the current projections. Currently, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources is studying concerns that have been raised over the sustainability of biomass resources; future consideration of biomass gen-eration will be based on the results of that study.

Minnesota. Among other changes resulting from the passage of SF 550 [26], Minnesota now allows limited amounts of solar generation to be included in the wind-only generation provision applied to the State’s largest utility. Whereas the prior law [27] required the largest utility in Minnesota to produce 25 percent of sales from wind generation and 5 percent from other eligible resources, now it may produce 24 per-cent from wind, 1 percent from wind or solar, and 5 percent from other eligible resources.

Nevada. In May 2009, Nevada enacted Senate Bill 358 [28], which increased the renewable electricity target to 25 percent of sales by 2025, of which 6 per-cent (1.5 percent of sales) must come from solar.

Rhode Island. In addition to its existing genera-tion-based RPS schedule, with the enactment of H 5002 [29] Rhode Island will now require utilities to procure 90 megawatts of new renewable capacity, of which 3 megawatts must be solar.

Footnotes:
20. Legislature of the State of Kansas, Senate Substitute for House Bill No. 2369 (May 22, 2009), web site www. kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2369.pdf.

21. West Virginia Legislature, H.B. 103 (July 1, 2009), web site www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text. cfm?billdoc=hb103%20ENR.htm&yr=2009& sesstype=1X&i=103.

22. Illinois General Assembly, Public Act 96-0159 (August 10, 2009), web site www.ilga.gov/legislation/ publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=096-0159.

23. Illinois Commerce Commission, Order 09-0432 (July 29, 2009), web site www.dsireusa.org/documents/ Incentives/IL04R.pdf.

24. Maine Legislature, Public Law, Chapter 329 (June 9, 2009), web site www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/ bills_124th/chapters/PUBLIC329.asp.

25. Philip Giudice, Commissioner, Massachusetts Depart-ment of Energy Resources, Letter to Biomass Energy Stakeholders (December 3, 2009), web site www.mass. gov/Eoeea/docs//doer/rps/Mass%20Biomass%20Energ y%20Stakeholders.pdf; and Massachusetts Depart-ment of Energy Resources, Clarification of Suspension of Biomass Energy from Qualification in the Renew-able Energy Portfolio Standard Program (December 22, 2009), web site www.mass.gov/Eoeea/docs/doer/ renewables/biomass/biomass-suspend-clarify- 2009dec22.pdf.

26. Minnesota Senate, S.F. 550, Sec. 13 (May 19, 2009), web site https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php? bill=S0550.3.html&session=ls86.

27. Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, 2009 Min-nesota Statutes, 216B.1691 (2009), web site https:// www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=216B.1691.

28. Nevada Senate, SB 358 (May 28, 2009), web site www. leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/SB/SB358_EN.pdf.

29. State of Rhode Island General Assembly, H 5002 (June 26, 2009), web site www.rilin.state.ri.us/ PublicLaws/law09/law09051.htm.