Paul Gipe is author of Wind Energy Basics: A Guide to Home- and Community-Scale Wind Energy Systems, Second Edition,
Paul Gipe -
RENEWABLEENERGYWORLD - June 1, 2009
Now it's posilble to be Carbon Negative --Ed.
Vermont's feed-in tariff legislation became law at the end of business on May 27, 2009. H. 446 is the first legislation calling for a full system of advanced renewable tariffs in the US to pass the legislature and become law. The bill includes changes to Vermont's Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development Program (SPEED) that would implement a pilot feed-in tariff policy.
Vermont's action follows closely on that of the Ontario provincial legislature's groundbreaking Green Energy Act and with several states considering similar legislation, the Green Mountain state could be the tipping point for a rapid succession of feed-in tariff policies across the continent.
It may be small states, such as Vermont, and municipalities, such as Gainesville, Florida, that could drive new renewable energy policy in the US and not the big states of California or Florida that are hopelessly embroiled in partisan stalemates.
Unlike the policy in Washington State and in the crude feed-in tariff in California, Vermont's legislation bases the tariffs on the cost of generation plus a reasonable profit. Costs of the program in Vermont are borne by ratepayers, not taxpayers as in the Washington State system....
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