20070714 Business: Southern utilities, lawmakers resist call for renewable power

Business: Southern utilities, lawmakers resist call for renewable power

By BEN EVANS, The Associated Press 2007-07-14

– Posted on Soundtrack on July 16^th, 2007

- for more information see: Energy Independence

WASHINGTON –

Six of the nation's 10 largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions are coal-fired power plants in the South, but year after year Southern lawmakers balk at pushing utilities toward cleaner renewable energy.

Last month, Republican senators from the South provided about half the votes that defeated federal legislation to require power companies to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Nationally, almost half the states have adopted their own renewable mandates, but only one, Texas, is in the South.

Southern lawmakers - responding to heavy lobbying from local utilities - argue their region isn't conducive to solar or wind power like the sun-baked Southwest or the open plains of the West.

But many leading scientists and environmental advocates say Southern states have plenty of alternative-energy potential. Utilities have simply grown comfortable with cheap, dirty coal and haven't been forced to change, they say.

[…]

Southern Co. puts more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other U.S. utility.

Its Scherer plant near Macon, Ga., for several years has been the nation's single largest source of the greenhouse gas, which most scientists believe contributes to global warming. Duke Energy isn't far behind, ranking third in carbon dioxide emissions, while the Tennessee Valley Authority ranks fourth, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

[…]

The most potential could lie in the South's emergence as a national leader in producing energy from timber residue, grasses and agricultural waste. Biomass now accounts for 1.5 percent of the nation's power - more than solar or wind.

Steven Taylor, chairman of the bioenergy program at Auburn University in Alabama, said Southern states have a record of producing biomass from their vast forests and farmlands.

[…]

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