The city of Gainesville, Florida is gearing up for a solar power boom, fueled by homegrown businesses and scrappy investors who have descended on the community and are hiring local contractors to install photovoltaic panels on rooftops around town.

Why is the renewable energy market in Gainesville booming while it's collapsing elsewhere in the country? The answer boils down to policy. In early February, the city became the first in the nation to adopt a "feed-in tariff" -- a clunky and un-descriptive name for a bold incentive to foster renewable energy. Under this system, the local power company is required to buy renewable energy from independent producers, no matter how small, at rates slightly higher than the average cost of production. This means anyone with a cluster of solar cells on their roof can sell the power they produce at a profit. The costs of the program are passed on to ratepayers, who see a small rise in their electric bills (in Gainesville the annual increase is capped at 1 percent). While rate hikes are seldom popular, the community has rallied behind this policy, because unlike big power plant construction -- the costs of which are also passed on to the public -- everyone has the opportunity to profit, either by investing themselves or by tapping into the groundswell of economic activity the incentive creates.
- Mariah Blake, Washington Monthly.

Several other U.S. cities and at least eleven other states are considering adopting feed-in tariffs. There is also a bill for a federal feed-in tariff before Congress.

Adopting a federal feed-in tariff that encourages everyday Americans to invest in renewable energy and reap the energy-saving and profit-making benefits should be a no-brainer for the Obama administration and the presumably concerned members of Congress, who have pledged to act swiftly and pragmatically to address our crises.

The main reason a federal feed-in tariff would address these daunting crises is that study after study "has shown that not only do feed-in tariffs deliver more renewable energy than other market incentives, they do so at a lower cost." (Blake) In Germany, the pioneer of the modern feed-in tariff, adopting this policy has given rise to the world's most robust renewable energy sector. More than forty other countries have followed Germany's lead, with impressive results. The United States cannot be left behind while Germany and dozens of other countries invest in their local communities and consistently surpass their renewable energy and efficiency goals.

"Feed-in tariffs promise to solve many of these problems by encouraging small, local production, driven not by Wall Street banks but by ordinary entrepreneurs -- a system that boosts efficiency and fortifies local economies." (Blake)

Opponents of a federal feed-in tariff claim that our outdated electricity grid makes this policy problematic, but President Obama pledged $11 billion in ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) for "smart grid" development, and this type of sustainable modernization will go hand-in-hand with a feed-in tariff policy.

Please sign this petition urging members of Congress and Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, to adopt a federal feed-in tarrif to help repair our economy and jump-start a renewable energy revolution. We must have policies and incentives in place to encourage sustainable development and the time is now to act "swiftly and pragmatically," for the future of our society and the development of this country.