Renewable Energy Needs a Level Playing Field
We often hear statements that clean, renewable energy is just too expensive as compared to energy derived from fossil fuel. In Arkansas, arguments are being made in the Public Service Commission's "Sustainable Energy Resources (SER)" docket (08-144-U), that fossil fuels (coal) is the cheapest form of fuel for electricity production. However, not all of the costs of producing electricity from coal are included in your monthly utility bill. There are external costs -- increased health care costs, damage to timber and agricultural production, among many others -- that are real costs we each pay, however they may be hidden in.
In the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital Blog, Keith Johnson writes:
For policymakers, these externalities represent an opportunity as much as a headache. For all the worries that a bigger role for government in the energy business -- from cap-and-trade schemes to solar-powered subsidies -- represents a retreat from free markets, that's hardly the case. Energy markets aren't "free" today, and the playing field is anything but level.
New energy policies that seek to redress those problems, and unleash rather than further stifle a genuine market for energy, will point the way toward a new energy future that makes sense, both environmentally and economically. That's because, if new policies set out to tackle those externalities once and for all, the environmental answer will quite often become the economic answer. Everything has its price -- and its cost.
We agree. As we have previously said, the Public Service Commission docket on Sustainable Energy Resources represents an opportunity for Arkansans to propose policy alternatives. Arkansas has a wealth of resources for the production of electricity, and should take advantage of the opportunities for the economic development of the state, especially in its rural areas.
