1 This report was assembled by EIA from a number of sources and in a series of steps, beginning with a review of State RPS and other program summaries available on web sites, followed by a review of State laws and regulations, and then further clarified by direct contact with State public utility commissions, electric utilities, and others. In most cases, information in this report can be found in the States’ laws and regulations. In some cases, however, characteristics are not explicitly described in records but have been clarified either in practice or by decisions and interpretations of the State offices running the programs or by the utilities subject to them. Specific current information about any State’s renewables requirements can be obtained by contacting the State’s public utility commission or accessing its web site (see “For More Information” at the end of this report). Additional information for this report was obtained from the Renewable Energy Policy Project, web site www.repp.org/rps_map.html, and the North Carolina Solar Center’s Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE), web site www.dsireusa.org. Among web sites with useful analyses of State renewable energy programs, see http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/EMS/ EMS_pubs.html.

2 There is no Federal renewable energy mandate.

3 Two States have multiple programs.

4 “Credits” are a market-based means of distinguishing the renewable characteristic of electricity from the electricity itself. Credits are tradable certificates documenting that specified kilowatthours of electricity were generated from qualifying renewable energy sources, are independent of the kilowatthours generated, and do not represent the delivery of actual electricity to the buyer.

5 Although Connecticut does not define “sustainable biomass,” “sustainable” usually means “when harvested, is replaced by new biomass such that no net depletion occurs.” See Biomass Energy Research Association (BERA) “An Introduction to Biomass Energy, A Renewable Resource,” by Donald L. Klass, accessible at http://www.bera1.org/about.html (February 3, 2004).

6 As of 2004, all three California utilities were considered to be creditworthy.

7 According to a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission staff briefing paper, Minnesota Statute 216C.051, Subd. 7, lists as preferred renewable energy technologies first solar and wind, second biomass and low-head or refurbished hydropower, and finally landfill gas, natural-gas-fired cogeneration, and waste materials or byproducts combined with natural gas. Briefing dated September 23, 2003, Docket Number E-999/CI-03-869, page 7, web site www.puc.State.mn.us/docs/briefing_papers/b03-0119.pdf.

8 “Competitive default supply” refers to suppliers serving customers who do not choose among alternative suppliers.

9 The development of some small amounts of additional renewable energy capacity may also have occurred in States in which RPS programs, mandates, or goals do not exist, in anticipation of income from future renewable energy credits for sales to entities in States with renewable energy programs.