2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

Renewable energy (RE) resources are increasingly used to generate electricity in the United States and viewed as essential to growing domestic and state economies, decreasing reliance on foreign fossil fuels, and providing cleaner sources of energy to combat climate change. In the absence of federal policies that create a stable and reliable market for renewable energy deployment, U.S. states have increasingly adopted Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) policies requiring electric utilities to generate a minimum percentage of electricity from renewable energy resources. Over the past two decades, RPSs have arguably been the most important driver of RE development in U.S. states, generating thousands of new jobs, reducing negative environmental impacts, and decreasing the cost while increasing the reliability of electricity for customers. However, there is growing concern among policymakers and stakeholders in some states that the RPS may not be the driving force it once was. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the RPS as a continuing driver of RE development in Nevada, a state with a twenty-year-old RPS that, like many RPSs, has undergone a number of revisions. Although Nevada’s history of adoption and modification are not uncommon, as with any state it has a unique context, its energy landscape, politics, economy, and stakeholder relationships have affected both the RPS policy itself and the extent to which it has been effective at driving growth in the RE sector. Using expert stakeholder interviews and document analysis, this study illuminates the process by which the RPS has transformed over time from a simple and well-intentioned policy to one that is complex, too easy to achieve, and no longer the primary driver of RE development in Nevada.  Both policy design and state conditions have contributed to the declining importance of the RPS in Nevada—particularly the allowance of existing resources, out-of-state RECs with long shelf-lives, and energy efficiency measures to count towards requirements, and inconsistent support from elected officials and utility regulators, close relationships between regulators and the electric utility, and a regulatory culture in favor of maintaining the status quo. The primary drivers in Nevada now include large companies with zero emissions goals and compliance with a policy the will phase out coal in the state. With deregulation on the horizon, Nevada faces important decisions as to whether to keep the RPS as is, increase the targets and modify the policy to strengthen its impact on the electric sector, or abandon the policy altogether and allow other policies and the market to take over.