Washington, DC - The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) sent a letter to encourage key lawmakers to move forward with a House-Senate conference on energy legislation and to include meaningful provisions for clean energy.
As Congress works out the details of pending energy legislation Business Council President Lisa Jacobson said,
"We look forward to working with Congress to finalize legislation this year with meaningful provisions for clean energy. We encourage Members to go to conference and to begin with, and build upon, the foundation of the bipartisan provisions that have been negotiated over the past months and years.
"Today's energy mix in the United States is radically different from that of a generation ago," Jacobson said.
"The 2016 edition of the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook documents this shift and demonstrates how energy efficiency, renewable energy and natural gas are contributing to the country's move towards cleaner energy production and more efficient energy usage. Clean energy technologies, such as natural gas, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, are essential to U.S. environmental objectives, energy policy goals, and to U.S. economic growth.
"Stable and balanced policies and infrastructure are critical for continued growth in the power generation and industrial sectors. Policies must be balanced in order to optimize our energy mix and flexible compliance alternatives. These policies may include federal land management, long-term contracting and transmission planning among others."
The letter called out a number of provisions in the energy legislation of particular interest to clean energy industries, including the hydropower licensing improvements and energy efficiency provisions.
"Enactment of meaningful clean energy provisions this year would provide an incremental step to continue and expand federal energy policy as we shift toward a modernized grid," Jacobson said.
For a complete copy of the BCSE letter go here.
