California utilities struggle to meet renewable-power requirement

LA Times ^ | 7/10/10 | Tiffany Hsu

[NormsRevenge]

California boasts some of the toughest standards in the nation for boosting the use of renewable power. Getting utilities to meet those mandates is proving to be even tougher.

State law requires the Golden State's three large investor-owned utilities to procure 20% of their retail electricity sales from clean sources by the end of 2010. But with less than six months left to meet that requirement, even government watchdogs don't expect the power companies to make it.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. are likely to end this year with a combined 18% of their retail sales coming from clean sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.

"It's highly unlikely that they'll make the exact number by the end of this year," said Commissioner James D. Boyd with the California Energy Commission, which is administering the program along with the public utilities agency. "I hate to be a naysayer, but … even though many contracts have been entered, the actual construction and thus the delivery of electricity has lagged."

Utility executives said they've moved aggressively to ink deals with renewable power producers throughout California. But some of those firms have had difficulty securing financing in a troubled economy. Others have hit technological snags or run into permitting and land-use hurdles that have delayed their timetables by months or even years. Transmission bottlenecks are another obstacle.

...

"Some of the contracts the utilities have signed are really pie in the sky," said Arthur O'Donnell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions in San Francisco. "They might sign anything down the pike just to get the regulators off their back."

[Cheerio]

Some of the least bright lights in CA have threatened to boycott Arizona....boycott what in AZ? Californians might want to remember where a great deal of the electricity comes from.(turn the faucet off) for LA and San Diego and surrounding towns.....

No more CO2 emitting plants built in the AZ desert, no solar plants in the desert of AZ for the CRAZY CA residents (I did not say CA citizens).

[rlmorel]

Yep. YOU understand.

It has taken me a while to come to the conclusion this stuff we see is not completely due to incompetence.

I posted this a month or two ago in response to whether I though Barack Obama was deliberately trying to destroy the USA.

I agreed that I was of that opinion, and here is one of the reasons why:

Joseph McCarthy gave a speech on the Senate floor in 1951, and later wrote a book that expounded on and backed up his points that he made on the floor, called “America’s Retreat from Victory”.

Like many people, I was unwilling to attach any negative aspirations or actions to someone like George Catlett Marshall who was hailed as a war hero and one of the greatest men of the 20th century.

McCarthy was not so shy, and was willing not only to say what he thought publicly, but to back it up with documentation, which he did in his book mentioned above (A copy of which I purchased a couple of years ago)

It is a stunning book, but how it relates to this subject here is this: In his analysis, Joseph McCarthy made the point that if some of the things that were done by Marshall that helped the communists were simply the result of a poor analysis or choice on his part, someone with his intellect would be likely to choose correctly at least SOME of the time, as a matter of averages. And that rarely happened. Without fail, nearly every choice and action in which Marshall was part of, they all were to the advantage of both the Soviets and the Chicoms.

The same can be said of Obama, in my estimation. If the appalling cumulative negative bulk of his actions were due to his stupidity or inexperience, at least some of his actions would be helpful to our country, simply as a result of the laws of averages.

None are.

And that tells me something.

[rlmorel]

The problem is, you and I both know there are more than enough sources of energy on US soil (and elsewhere) but if it is rendered unavailable due to deliberate action on the part of governments around the world, then the shortage will be real.

That is precisely what we are seeing.

Deliberate action on the part of the governments. Sounds like conspiracy theory stuff, right?

But here we are. I still have trouble getting my head around this, but I have crossed the Rubicon.

[Red Dog #1]

In deed, even as we enter the second millennium, much of the world still believes in superstitions. Instead of ghost and spirits, men and women are controlled with myths of global warming, peak oil and that somehow "social justice" (what ever that happens to entail this week) can be imposed.