A national renewable electricity standard offers many advantages over the current patchwork system of state standards, including the creation of a market for renewable energy credits which would reduce the overall cost of compliance.

The Copenhagen Accord represents a small but imperfect step forwards. If efforts are not made to pass Senate legislation, fill in details within the existing UN tracks, and bridge the growing divide between developed and developing countries, success will be elusive in Mexico as well, endangering the future of the planet.