Why ALEC's Attacks on Renewable Energy Failed Nationwide

Though nonprofit organizations and educators have recently touted clean energy as an alternative to carbon-polluting fossil fuels, a new report shows the lengths others have gone to prevent the growth of renewables.

The latest report from ProgressNow details how the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) attempted to curtail renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in states across the country in 2013, to no avail.

"In contrast to economic rationality, and in defense of its corporate benefactors, ALEC attacked RPS throughout the states," the report reads. "[Thirty-seven] bills throughout the nation sought to roll back the nation’s varied RPS policies. ALEC’s bill failed to eliminate any standard, while four states even increased their standard."

Those standards establish minimum requirements for renewable use at state utilities. ProgressNow and the groups that support the organization found that ALEC set the stage for its rollback attempts a year ago in Salt Lake City, where it hosted an Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force (EEA) meeting with "the top echelon of fossil fuel interests and alternative energy opponents."

ALEC's Electricity Freedom Act was birthed at that meeting by fossil fuel titans looking to eliminate legislation in 29 states that had previously set various percentages and wattage amounts of renewable energy to be used by utilities. Officials at Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil are among those listed on ALEC's Private Enterprise Council.

The Electricity Freedom Act characterized RPS as "essentially a tax on consumers of electricity that forces the use of renewable energy sources beyond what would be called for by real market forces." Most of the anti-RPS legislation failed to make it beyond the introductory stage.

"They have almost no success," said Brian Wietgrefe, national research director at ProgressNow, told Huffington Post. "It's because it works—the policies work."

The report also shows efforts in several states to allow fracking companies to exclude chemical ingredients from their reports to state agencies, deeming them "trade secrets."