Policy wonk corner: "How to Design Feed-in Tariffs in the U.S. without Fear of Federal Preemption"

[kristopher]

How to Design Feed-in Tariffs in the U.S. without Fear of Federal Preemption
By Paul Gipe, Contributor
August 11, 2011

The cavalry has finally arrived in the seemingly endless debate about what states can and can't do in designing workable feed-in tariffs. The cavalry is in the form of two new papers describing how states can design feed-in tariff policies without running afoul of the US government's power of preemption.

Written by Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) scholar and expert on feed-in tariffs Jennifer Gleason, the two papers explain the arcane rules derived from the US Constitution and the Federal Power Act. The papers, written for feed-in tariff advocates the Alliance for Renewable Energy, bring the discussion up-to-date with recent favorable decisions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Opponents of feed-in tariffs in the USA have often hidden behind the skirts of FERC, citing restrictions in the Federal Power Act, to stymie action. Akin to the FUD tactics of big tobacco in the smoking wars, opponents sought to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt that feed-in tariffs, like those used in Canada and Europe, could be implemented in the USA.

In October of last year, FERC blasted open the door to fully differentiated feed-in tariffs in the USA....

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/08/how-to-design-feed-in-tariffs-in-the-u-s-without-fear-of-federal-preemption?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-August16-2011

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See also:
Federal Regulator Blasts Open Door to Differentiated Feed-in Tariffs in USA
FERC Decision Clears the Way for Multi-Tiered State FITs
October 22, 2010
By Paul Gipe

In a ruling 21 October 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) effectively cleared the way for multi-tiered feed-in tariffs for various renewable energy technologies, like the programs found in Ontario, Canada and across Europe. FERC's ruling "clarified" an earlier decision that had roiled proposed feed-in tariff policies at the state level in the US.

The ruling affects state policies that order utilities to pay for a certain percentage of generation from a particular technology, in this specific case, the state of California's policy on Combined Heat and Power.

FERC's action should put to rest claims by feed-in tariff opponents, such as Vote Solar, that differentiated feed-in tariffs based on the cost of generation, as found in Germany, France, Switzerland and a host of other countries, are prohibited for much of the continental US.

The federal decision also casts doubt on the justification for the much-hyped Renewable Auction Mechanism proposed in California. The auction--or bidding system--is predicated on the necessity of complying with federal law. Bidding systems for developing renewable energy have been widely abandoned in Europe in favor of feed-in tariffs in part to better control costs and the pace of development.

Feed-in tariffs (FITs) had ...
http://www.wind-works.org/FeedLaws/USA/FederalRegulatorBlastsOpenDoortoDifferentiatedFeed-inTariffsinUSA.html