“Our nation is at a critical moment in history, confronted by a triple threat of challenges – an economy in recession, an overdependence on foreign energy, and a warming planet,” FPL Group Chairman Lew Hay told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in Washington, DC. “Simply put, we must create a clean-energy economy for the 21st century – one that will help pull our economy out of recession, strengthen America’s energy security in a volatile world, and address the threat of global climate change.”

Hay cautioned, however, that these important national goals can be derailed by "short-sighted policies that make it financially impossible for utilities to embrace clean energy or that saddle customers with too high a cost, too quickly."

Hay proposed a seven-point plan to help the country "make the transition to a low-carbon economy." He urged policymakers to enact mandatory climate change legislation this year that puts a price on carbon.

“We must ‘make polluters pay.’ Only when carbon carries a price equal to its cost to society as a whole will we have a level playing field among all forms of electricity generation,” Hay said.

Hay also called for investment incentives for renewable electricity generation. He also said the US should enact a national renewable portfolio standard (RPS) this year.

“Our current energy policy is too vulnerable to short-term fluctuations in the price of fossil fuels,” Hay said. “A national RPS will put a floor under the price of renewables by ensuring demand for wind and solar energy.

To support the transition to a low-carbon future, Hay urged regulators and policymakers to also:

*Support significant expansion of transmission capacity.

*Convert 50% of the nation’s automobile fleet to plug-in vehicles by the year 2030.

*The US should adopt nationwide energy efficiency campaign that strengthens standards for buildings and appliances and provides incentives for homeowners and utilities to invest in energy efficiency.

*Build more nuclear power plants.

*Hay also said US coal is “too abundant, too domestic and too cheap” for the country to abandon it entirely. Hay urged passage of legislation providing "substantial research and development support for carbon capture and storage."