The legislation would require that 20 percent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.

By Jennifer Talhelm The Associated Press

Washington - Several Western lawmakers are leading an effort in the House to set a national requirement that utilities produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020.

Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico are among a group of lawmakers pushing to add the renewable electricity standard to a House bill promoting clean energy.

The renewable electricity proposal is a key - but controversial - measure that environmentalists say must pass if the nation is going to take meaningful steps to combat global warming and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel.

A similar effort failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The Western House members hope their effort will make it through Congress.

"We've entered an era of energy scarcity and high energy prices, and we need to start doing some different things in a different way," said Tom Udall, who first proposed the measure in 2002.

DeGette joined as a co-sponsor in recent years. "It would make the whole country think about how each region can achieve more energy independence," she said.

By pushing the bill, the lawmakers are likely setting up a fight that will pit the West and Midwest against the Southeast. It's unclear whether the proposal has enough support to pass.

Western states were among the first to start requiring the use of renewable energy, in part because of the ample supply of wind and sunshine. More than 20 states mandate that a percentage of their electricity be produced from renewable energy sources.

Southerners, however, say they are at a disadvantage because they don't have access to wind energy, one of the best-developed alternative sources of energy. Southern utility companies helped kill the Senate proposal this summer by lobbying heavily against it.

Many of those utilities depend on greenhouse gas-producing coal. They say an aggressive renewable energy mandate could cause a huge increase in electricity prices.

"We believe this is an issue that should be left up to the states," said Jason Cuevas, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Southern Co., which fought the Senate proposal. One-size-fits- all requirements "won't make the wind blow, and they won't make the sun shine," he said.

On the other side, environmentalists are lobbying hard for the measure, reminding Democrats that promising to curb global warming helped them gain control of Congress last November.

Even though the renewable standard was not included in the Senate energy bill, if the House added it, it could still become part of the legislation that goes to the president's desk after the bill is hammered out in a conference committee.

"The energy bill that is coming in to the House falls in the nice category," said Kevin Curtis, senior vice president at National Environmental Trust.

Adding a renewable electricity standard and a requirement to make cars more efficient would "move it from the nice category to the really good category," Curtis said.

Mark Udall said enough states have approved their own renewable fuel requirements that it's time for a national policy.