California legislators set to adopt nation's toughest
renewable energy law
LOS ANGELES, Jun 24, 2010 -- Comtex
Spurred by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, California legislators are
working towards adopting the nation's toughest renewable energy law to
reduce the state's dependence on oil and serve as a model for other
states.
The law would require privately and publicly owned electric utilities to
generate a third of their power from wind, solar and other clean sources
by 2020, according to the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.
With images of gushing crude and oil-covered birds dominating TV
screens, environmentalists, utilities generators, labor unions and other
industry groups now are meeting at least weekly and are closing in on a
deal, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Susan P. Kennedy,
was quoted as saying.
The effort is supported by Schwarzenegger, who is eager to burnish
his environmental legacy before leaving office in January even though he
vetoed a similar bill last fall, according to the paper.
After last fall's veto, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order
unilaterally imposing the 33-percent renewable standard. But Democrats
denounced the action as mainly symbolic because it does not bind future
governors.
This year, Democrats came back with a compromise bill, which has its
first legislative hearing Thursday in the Assembly Utilities and
Commerce Committee.
"I'm very optimistic," Kennedy said. "There's always been a consensus
around the goal. It's simply a matter of identifying what the obstacles
are in the implementation."
The biggest disagreement centered on the use of credits that energy
producers around the West can earn for generating renewable power, the
paper said.
Currently, the credits can be traded among electricity generators and
purchasers and used by California electric utilities to satisfy part of
their renewable energy obligations.
Environmentalists, construction and utility worker unions and consumer
advocates want to restrict the use of credits, arguing that wind and
solar power produced in Montana or Utah brings limited benefits to
California in the form of cleaner air or new jobs.
The utilities counter that California needs to be part of a regional
energy market if it wants to ensure adequate supplies of competitively
priced electricity.
Now, under a compromise that is forming, the bulk of new renewable power
plants would be built in California, creating thousands of high-paying
green construction and operations jobs, according to the paper.
At the same time, the emerging deal would leave utilities with enough
flexibility to buy electricity from power generators throughout the
West.
The compromise, Kennedy said, should guarantee that at least half the
renewable energy under the 33-percent goal would be generated at
California power plants.
Still to be determined is the exact percentage that could come from
tradable credits linked to power from renewable sources based outside
the state, according to the paper.
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