New study details how US renewable portfolio standard policies are delivering billions of dollars in environmental and economic benefits President Obama is expected to make climate change one of the centrepieces of his final State of the Union addresses later today, as he looks to sketch out how recent environmental policy moves will...
Obama is set to make climate change a key part of his final State of the Union address today, outlining how the recent environmental policy moves will benefit the US economy over the next few years. Although specific details of Obama's speech are not clear, it is expected that he will build on his repeated claims that action to cut emissions, represents an opportunity for US businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators. The President's claims will be supported by new research from Berkeley Lab and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which looked at the economic impact of renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies in 2013. In particular, NREL found that RPS policies, combined with other tax incentives such as those offered through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA), have led to more than $900 billion dollars Additionally, the research concludes that up to 200,000 renewable energy-related jobs have been created, savings for consumers have reached up to $1.2bn from reduced wholesale electricity prices, and between $1.3bn to $3.7bn has been saved through reduced natural gas prices.