By Phoebe Sweet

Thu, Nov 22, 2007 (6:54 a.m.)

Nevada got some credit for progressive energy policy from environmental groups that urged Congress to follow the example of this state and 20 others in enacting laws and policies that protect people and the planet.

Nevada was singled out for having aggressive renewable energy and conservation programs in a report released this month by Environment America, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

"The states have acted because Washington has failed," said Carl Pope, national head of the Sierra Club, who was in Las Vegas last week touting the report. "States have stepped into this field and they have done so in an innovative and energetic way. Unfortunately I have to say Congress still doesn't get it."

Nevada's efforts in renewables and efficiency programs earned it a "rising star" rating in the report, "America's Clean Energy Stars." Eight other states got the same designation. Twelve states, including California, Oregon and Washington, received gold or silver star ratings.

Nevada earned its designation for laws that require energy-efficient utility programs and appliance efficiency standards, and regulations that mandate Nevada Power and parent company Sierra Pacific Resources purchase a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources.

It did not earn a higher rating because, unlike some other states, Nevada does not have car or building efficiency codes.

Pope said Nevada and other rising star states still have work to do. He criticized plans to build three coal-fired power plants in Nevada.

"Nevada doesn't need new coal-fired power plants," he said. "Nevada can meet both its ... energy needs and those of other states by harnessing its own resource." And, he added, doing so would keep jobs in Nevada and help the state be part of the effort to ease "global warming rather than making the problem even harder to solve."

Sierra Pacific Resources announced plans last week to develop a 400-megawatt wind power plant straddling the Nevada-Idaho border, but it has also proposed a 1,500-megawatt coal plant for Northeast Nevada to help meet Southern Nevada's growing power demand, especially in the summer. The company's renewable-energy executive, Tom Fair, said in a recent interview that the utility can't meet all the state's needs with renewable energy projects.

He said Sierra Pacific's wind project, one of two now proposed in a state that doesn't yet produce any wind power, would help the utility meet a state requirement that it purchase 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015.

According to Stephen Reed, Mountain West field associate with Environment America, the reduction in global warming pollution attributable to renewable energy standards adopted by 25 states and the District of Columbia is equivalent to taking 21 million cars off the road.

"We have begun to take action, but we need to do more and the states cannot do it alone," Reed said. "Congress needs to stop dragging its feet."