Georgia Public Service Commissioner Stan Wise says that his state simply does not have the renewable resources to meet proposed standards put forth by President Obama. He says that Georgia would have to outsource green energy, costing the state and its taxpayers billions of dollars and raise electricity bills by as much as 25 percent.

In speaking to Congress in February, Wise claimed that set standards would only cost Southern states “jobs, growth, and industry.” The proposed goals would require the entire country to get 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. This would be accomplished either through production of power or purchase of that power from elsewhere. Obama’s plan would also institute a cap-and-trade system on greenhouse gas emitting power plants, most notably coal-fired plants. Now guess where Georgia gets the vast amount of its energy.

Roughly three-quarters of Georgia’s energy comes from coal, with the remainder taken from gas or nuclear plants. Only a very small fraction comes from renewable sources. Stan Wise claims that the state does not have the resources of Plains states with their wind or Southwestern states with their solar potential.

Environmental groups say that Georgia has plenty of potential and only a lack of effort and an attachment to the coal and nuclear industries stands in their way. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy claims that Georgia could easily meet proposed energy goals with a combination of biomass, wind, solar, geothermal and tidal energy resources. In addition, the Union of Concerned Scientists recently noted that Georgia alone could create nearly 4,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in investments by 2030 if it simply committed itself to renewable resources. That study also pointed out that Georgia is already exporting money for energy anyway — roughly $1.6 billion to import coal in 2005 alone.

Instead, Wise and other state officials want renewable energy legislation revised to include nuclear power as well. In fact Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, is awaiting approval on two more nuclear plants even as the Congressional debate heats up — perhaps a reason for Wise’s apparent sense of urgency.

Georgia state officials do point to biomass resources as a possibility, but there is not nearly enough resources to meet demands with biomass alone. And even if they pursued all their renewable energy options, Wise claims that customer utility rates would rise too dramatically to warrant the move. So what happens if Georgia and other states cannot meet federal demands? It seems that is what Congress is attempting to decipher.

It seems to me, however, that the move away from coal and toward renewable energy is inevitable and late in coming. And if Southern states do not start focusing on clean energy now they will almost certainly have to purchase energy from out of state, which will undoubtedly be more expensive than producing their own. Georgia would be best served to begin harnessing their variety of renewable resources now because the times are changing and a transition from coal energy must come. The sooner states get started the easier that transition will be.

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Posted on March 17th in Solar Politics by Dan.