PROVIDENCE – Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s office said today he will sign a bill allowing National Grid to sign long-term contracts to purchase electricity from renewable-energy developers.
The House and Senate voted to approve the bill on Tuesday, and Carcieri plans to sign it at a ceremony tomorrow morning during a Green Economy Roundtable event being held at the Providence-Warwick Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The General Assembly’s Democratic leadership and a number of other lawmakers are scheduled to attend, including Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, the bill’s chief Senate sponsor.
“This landmark legislation is a critical piece to Rhode Island’s goal to increase the use of renewable sources of energy to generate 20 percent of the state’s electricity needs,” Carcieri said in a statement.
The legislation requires National Grid to sign 10- to 15-year contracts to buy a minimum of 90 megawatts of its electricity load from renewable developers and up to 150 megawatts from a utility-scale offshore wind farm that Hoboken, N.J.-based Deepwater Wind plans to construct in Rhode Island Sound in the first half of the next decade.
The contracting process will be overseen by the R.I. Public Utilities Commission. Once a renewable site begins generating power, ratepayers will pay National Grid a 2.75 percent bonus for using its electricity.
The bill received strong backing from Deepwater, which was picked by the Carcieri administration to build the offshore wind project and another smaller one off Block Island.
Deepwater and other renewable energy developers say long-term contracts play a key role in allowing them to attract investors because they guarantee that projects will generate enough revenue to cover their upfront costs. Other states, including Massachusetts, have implemented similar policies recently.
The new law “sends a strong signal that Rhode Island is serious about renewable energy,” Carcieri added. “We have the natural resources, a willing and able work force, and now with this legislation we have the regulatory environment to encourage development. Our state is now in the position to be a national leader in this industry.”
Carcieri vetoed similar legislation last July – to the consternation of environmentalists and its legislative backers – but he agreed to support it this year after minor changes were made.
“This is one of the boldest steps that we have taken in recent years to make a commitment to more sustainable living in Rhode Island,” said Miller, chairman of the Senate Corporations Committee. “This is more than a goal. It is a promise that we are making as a state that a significant portion of our energy is going to be drawn from renewable sources.”
The General Assembly passed a law five years ago mandating that Rhode Island get 16 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Wind, solar, and hydro power is green and renewable. Burning trash is not. Lets hope our corrupt politicians do use this to fund the “waste of energy” project at the landfill in Johnston.