Colorado lawmakers have raised the bar when it comes to a renewable energy standard. Following action last week in the state Senate, the Colorado House on Monday approved a 30 percent RES, making the state one of the most ambitious in creating a green-energy portfolio. According to reports, only California, with a 33 percent standard, is higher.
The legislation boosts the RES to 30 percent by 2020, and will create an estimated 23,000 jobs, largely in construction, to meet the goals. Companies in wind, biomass and solar are developing new projects in the state.
While there is debate about the actual job creation, short-term and long-term, other questions should arise about the benefits such an aggressive RES will have for landowners when it comes to developing wind and solar farms or selling biomass.
Consider that Colorado had 409,000 acres expire from the Conservation Reserve Program last September and is slated to have another 1.368 million slated to expire between this year and the end of 2012. Maybe a good portion of that land is re-enrolled or extended. However, for acreage coming out, there's good potential for energy crops to capture at least some of that market, converting switchgrass or other crops into biomass to co-fire in coal plants.
Just an option, but again, I understand there is no money for farmers or landowners in this green-energy economy.
'Gotta Beat That Competition'
That's one of my favorite lines from "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?" I'm headed to Ankeny, Iowa, for what amounts to essentially two days of meetings on competition issues in agriculture. The meeting Friday is the official USDA-Department of Justice meeting that will have a long list of scheduled speakers before public comment on competition in agriculture begins. The meeting Thursday night in Ankeny is unofficial, but some agricultural and activist groups are expected to draw more than 200 people to their meeting on competition battles in agriculture. I'm curious to see how each of those meetings goes and what type of conversation about agriculture is generated from this first round of debate. USDA-DOJ have five meetings scheduled throughout the year on competition and different sectors of agriculture.
FYI
The Senate is scheduled to take a final vote today on a tax extenders bill that would reinstall the $1 biodiesel tax credit and also approve a $1.5 billion disaster package. This bill would have to go to the House for approval as well, where it likely will be changed.
A bigger debate, however, is needed on tax credits such as the biodiesel tax credit. Even with passage, the credit expires again at the end of December, along with the 45-cent ethanol blend credit. If these credits are going to be substantive, then Congress needs to act and extend credits for a longer period because this yearly merry-go round isn't going to help the industry or create stable tax policy.
