Mexican Senate passes national climate law after passing the House: continuing to act at home

The Mexican Senate passed the national climate law that recently passed the Mexican House.  The bill now awaits the signature of President Felipe Calderón who is expected to sign the bill into law.  This law sends a strong signal that Mexico will continue to implement actions to reduce global warming pollution now and into the future.  It sets in place the foundation for even greater action by Mexico under future Administrations**.

The bill passed both the Mexican House and Senate with large majorities, showing the multi-party support for climate action in Mexico.  The Senate passed the bill 78-0 and the House passed it by a vote of 280-10 with one abstention.

Poland to reverse course over new renewables law

Coal-reliant Poland will reverse course and push through a law providing guaranteed purchase prices for power generated from wind turbines, an economy ministry official said on Wednesday.

The European Union member in December presented an overhaul of its renewable support plan that sought to retract guaranteed purchase prices for renewables, a move that raised investor concern in the rapidly growing wind sector.

Industry members said the lack of a purchase guarantee and a cut in the size of state support for wind by a quarter would shrivel up financing over worries costly projects would not provide a return in the European Union nation.

Kentucky: House hearing scheduled for clean energy legislation

A bill that would require a certain percentage of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources is scheduled for a hearing in the Kentucky House of Representatives. The bill has little chance of passage this late in the session, but its advocates are hoping to set the stage for next year.

House Bill 167—the Clean Energy Opportunity Act—would gradually increase the percentage of Kentucky’s energy that’s from renewable sources. Right now, about 94 percent of the state’s energy comes from coal. If the bill ever becomes law, that will have to change and at least 12.5 percent of the commonwealth’s energy will have to come from renewable sources within ten years.

Reworked energy bill goes to AZ Senate

A Senate panel approved renewable energy legislation Wednesday that its sponsor conceded is designed to provoke a new legal fight with the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, agreed to scrap her original proposal, which would have required the utility panel to get the approval of lawmakers and the governor for any change in rules. An attorney for the Legislature said such a move is unconstitutional.

Her new version of HB 2789 simply says that utilities cannot be forced to obtain more of their power from renewable sources than the current commission mandate of 15 percent by 2025.

Lesko said she believes this simpler version avoids all of the legal problems her first version created by giving one branch of government veto power over the rules of another branch. At the same time, she said, it keeps the regulators from expanding the requirement.

Vermont: Administration produces renewable portfolio standard proposal

Two months into the legislative process, the Vermont Department of Public Service weighed in this week with a proposal for the renewable portfolio standard bill that has ping-ponged back and forth in the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.

The department proposes a goal for the state of 75 percent renewable energy by 2032, including 35 percent “new renewable” and 10 percent small-scale generation.