“I have proposed a bold step, which will make Virginia a leader in renewable energy,” Moran said. “The next governor needs to be looking toward the future and creating an environment which will attract good high-paying green jobs, and help Virginia grow in the green economy. My commitment to our environment and our economy is too strong to do anything less.”Under Moran's plan, Virginia would need to get at least 25 percent of its power by 2025 (and 20 percent by 2020) through renewable energy or increases in energy efficiency.
Some quick takes:
- Lumping renewable energy and efficiency together is a bit clumsy. It also makes the campaign's claims the plan would "put Virginia in the top ten states nationally" pretty dubious since most of those states don't allow utilities to use efficiency to meet the goal. Ideally, Moran wouldn't include efficiency in his 25 percent by 2025. If he does, he needs to specify how much of the 25 percent can come from efficiency improvements.
- Moran's plan puts him far ahead of McAuliffe, at least for now. Terry has been talking about taking Virginia's voluntary 12 percent by 2022 renewables & efficiency standard and making it mandatory. He'll need to come up with a much stronger plan if he wants to hold the mantle of the boldest candidate on clean energy.
- In such a tight race, Creigh Deeds risks fading into the rear view mirror if he doesn't at least match Moran's plan.
3 comments:
I've read through Moran's press release twice now and am not seeing any mention of his plans with regard to energy efficiency. Isn't this a call for 25% by 2025 on just renewable energy? Where are you seeing EE?
"Sources of renewable energy that can meet this commitment include solar, wind, energy efficiency, geothermal, hydropower, wave, tidal, waste to energy, and biomass."
oooh, there it is!
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