Is the U.S. Ready To Enact a FIT?

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/07/is-the-u-s-ready-to-enact-a-fit

U.S. state and local efforts to create feed-in tariff (FIT) programs will not work as well as those in Europe unless regulators adopt the key principles that have made FIT programs so successful on the Continent, analysts say.

And, they add, this is unlikely to happen unless U.S. regulators, utilities and key players stop thinking near-term and start fighting against entrenched interests in order to adopt the basic principles key to FIT programs.

“People are thinking very short-term – look at what I’m doing for myself – and that’s what causes all this fighting,” said Ted Ko, associate executive director of the FIT Coalition, a Bay Area-based group promoting the adoption of FITs on a local, state and nationwide level.

* Experts agree that a successful FIT program has several key elements:

* Procure renewable energies at a price it costs to produce them

* Allow for a diversity of energy sources, not just solar

* Differentiate prices by technology, not application

* No caps

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