By Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive.

Renewable portfolio standards have shown net benefits running into the billions of dollars, according to a new study from the Lawrence Berekley National Laboratory (LBNL).

While the numbers are significant in themselves, they also illustrate what new policies that align the goals of renewable energy mandates and the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan could do.

“This work presents something of the magnitude of the benefits associated with avoided air pollution and avoided greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the renewable electricity used to meet the RPS targets in the year 2013,” said Galen Barbose, a research scientist with LBNL and one of the authors of the study.