West Virginia Becomes First State to Repeal RPS

Earlier this week West Virginia’s Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed House Bill 2001, making the state the first in the nation to repeal its alternative energy mandate. The bipartisan proposal sailed through both chambers of the West Virginia Legislature earlier this month, passing unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 95-4 in the House of Delegates.

West Virginia’s mandate required utilities to generate at least 25 percent of electricity with renewable or alternative sources by 2025. Although unlikely to happen, the mandate could technically be achieved in full by only using fossil fuel-based alternative energies. Consequently, many viewed the state’s renewable standard as a non-binding goal.

Nevertheless, this is big news.

This move comes as many states legislatures across the country continue to have conversations about the value and appropriateness of states distorting electricity markets by imposing burdensome mandates on utilities.

In 2014, Ohio notably froze its mandate for two years and created a legislative committee to further study the mandate’s costs and benefits.