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1 [1] (February 24, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govecot0001 and id is 1 raw text is: C nor , o th Re a hI evc S Updated February 24, 2021 A Brief History of U.S. Electricity Portfolio Standard Proposals Electricity portfolio standards are designed to change the set of energy sources used to generate electricity, usually by establishing requirements on utilities to procure a percentage of electricity from specified eligible sources. Since the 105th Congress, 76 proposals for a national portfolio standard have been introduced, but none has become law. This analysis provides historical context on federal portfolio standard proposals. Previous Federal Proposals CRS sought to assemble a comprehensive list of federal portfolio standard proposals through a search in Congress.gov. A full description of the search methodology and the list of previous legislation is available in CRS Report R45913, Electricity Portfolio Standards: Background, Design Elements, and Policy Considerations. Of the proposals CRS identified, the earliest bill was introduced in 1997 in the 105th Congress. Some proposals were stand-alone; in other words, a national portfolio standard was the only provision in the bill. Other proposals included a portfolio standard alongside other provisions. As Figure 1 shows, the number of introduced bills was highest in the 110th Congress. The 115th Congress saw the fewest number of introduced bills of any Congress in which a portfolio standard was proposed. Of the bills included in this analysis, 14 (18%) had some action in addition to introduction and referral to committee. Seven of these were passed in at least one chamber, but in all cases as part of a more comprehensive energy or environmental bill. For example, H.R. 2454 in the 1 11h Congress, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, passed the House. Source Eligibility A chief distinction among portfolio standard proposals is which electricity generation sources may be used to fulfill the requirement (i.e., source eligibility). A portfolio standard might establish a requirement to procure electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass, or geothermal energy. Many stakeholders refer to these as renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Alternatively, a portfolio standard might establish requirements to procure electricity from a broader set of sources like nuclear, efficient natural gas-fired, or fossil fuel-fired power plants equipped with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology in addition to renewable sources. Many stakeholders refer to this type of policy as a clean energy standard (CES). Portfolio standard proposals differ in their treatment of hydropower, possibly reflecting the varying levels of support hydropower has among different stakeholders. Some proposals include hydropower in their definition of renewable sources, albeit often with restrictions based on size or age, while other proposals exclude hydropower in favor of non-hydro renewables. Many of the proposals identified by CRS (42) took an intermediate approach, exempting hydropower from the compliance requirement. In general, sources that are exempted from a portfolio standard requirement could receive indirect financial support. The level of support for exempted sources would likely be less than the support for eligible sources, but more than the support for ineligible sources. Some proposals also exempted other sources in addition to hydropower such as municipal solid waste (24 proposals) and new nuclear power plants (5 proposals). Figure 1 categorizes bills according to the types of sources that would be eligible. All bills included some non-hydro renewables, though there were differences about eligibility for some types of sources, especially biomass. The introduced bills that only included non-hydro renewables are represented by blue bars in the figure. Five bills defined eligible sources as renewable sources without further clarification. These also are represented by the blue bars. The majority of bills explicitly included some hydropower for eligibility in addition to non-hydro renewables (red bars), though some of these had age or size restrictions. The figure does not distinguish bills that exempted hydropower or any other source from the compliance requirement. The third category of bills included non-hydro renewables, hydropower, and additional nonrenewable sources like nuclear or CCS (yellow bars) as eligible sources. No proposals included only nonrenewable sources. Figure I. Federal Portfolio Standard Proposals, by Source Eligibility Number of Introduced Bills Some Non-Renewable 16 Sources 14 Some Hydro 12 Non -Hydro Renewables 10 8 6 4 2 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 Congress Source: CRS analysis, Congress.gov. Notes: Bills are categorized according to the set of eligible sources under the proposed portfolio standard. Differences in other design aspects, such as exemptions for certain sources from compliance requirements, are not shown. ttps://crsrepo rts~congress. (