Posted on 04/03/2011 1:39:53 PM PDT by SmithL
If Washington won't, California will. In Congress, political paralysis is stalling energy and climate change policy, but Sacramento last week adopted a far-reaching plan to wean the state off fossil fuels and push for more clean-and-green sources of power.
For several years, the Legislature has debated a requirement that energy producers such as major utilities increase the amount of wind, solar and other renewable sources from 20 to 33 percent of their output.
Part of the problem was practical: How can a huge, industrial state depend on infant technologies and untried ideas? Other objections circled around finances, consumer protections, deadlines and where new jobs might go. Much of the same arguing could be heard in Washington, where ideology deepened and yielded gridlock on national energy policies.
After several false starts, California lawmakers have finally shaped an answer, one that should set a high standard for states that regularly borrow made-in-California ideas on tailpipe emissions, clean fuels and energy-efficiency standards. Maybe Washington will get the message, too.
A bill by state Sen. Joe Simitian, a Palo Alto Democrat, decrees the 33 percent renewable share by 2020. It provides surety for a financial market and investors wondering if the state is serious or just all talk about green technology. It's an echo of voter sentiment last fall that rejected a repeal of greenhouse gas laws and provides further reassurance about the state's support for innovation on energy.
It comes with a degree of ratepayer insurance by giving the state Public Utilities Commission the power to cap future rates if the costs of switching to renewables run high. That's an important guarantee for consumer groups concerned about rising energy bills.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
giving the state Public Utilities Commission the power to cap future rates if the costs of switching to renewables run highAh! They must have repealed the Law of Supply and Demand!
Follow the yellow-brick road,
Follow the yellow-brick road,
Follow follow follow follow
Follow the yellow-brick road.
Gosh, Toto, are we in Kansas yet?
Don’t come running over to AZ siting coal, gas, and oil fired plants and shipping the output over to a GREEN CA. Stay out of our state with your green wet dream.
They’ll always have the SF Chronicle to put in in their wood stoves on cold nights.
its against the law for them to light their wood stoves
How many unicornpower does it take to run an average California home?
They used to be, but that was when they still had an industrial base. I suppose they still need power for the cities...
I can see the CA officials begging for power from neighboring states:
You know, we can't seem to get a power company interested in building here anymore. Just because a few loons lay down in front of their 'dozers and tied them up in court for years, and taxes are high, and we make them supply deadbeats who never pay.
We need your help because our state is so beautiful and we can't dirty it up with powerplants (like you did in your UGLY state).
It's gotta be green, you know, so we're gonna tell you how to generate it.
And it can't be too expensive, so if you try and make a profit we're gonna freeze your rates.
Oh, and by the way, we're broke, so we're gonna pay with these IOU's...
Watching the State of California is somewhat like watching Charlie Sheen in action - Constant irresponsible and somewhat irrational behavior which will lead to the eventual wreck. In both cases the outcome will be a mess.
They could clear cut all the forests and then lay down solar panels. That might do it.
[giving the state Public Utilities Commission the power to cap future rates if the costs of switching to renewables run high]
Oh yeah! That out to work out just jim dandy! I’ll be laughing my arse off when the lights go out in Cali.
Let me guess.
Municipal electrical distributors, i.e. LADWP will be exempt from this ruling; just like the deregulation attempt in the 1990s.
So the burden falls upon the rate payers of PSEG and SCE. Just like the blackouts of 2000.
I'm so glad I don't live there any longer.
Someone once stated “Let ‘em freeze to death in the dark.”
Guess there are those in power that don’t remember the solar panels erected in the California Valley, only to be dismantled several years later.
Just read the nincompoop replies to the article:”Spain does well with green power, why can’t we? Uh Spain realized that “green power” costs TWICE what the power from traditional sources does, and didn’t they abandon their programs based on that? It was TOO expensive and didn’t deliver what was promised, and made things WORSE. Just like EVERY liberal program.
I think this is a great idea. The only cost involved in doing this is rolling black outs or power getting transmitted to one's home every other day instead of every day. Think of the savings!!
A windmill in every room. That should do it.
That won't be necessary. There won't be any lights to turn out.
California, LMAO!!
"Damn the torpedoes..."
Hahaha... it's like California's Democrat politicians are reaching up from the swirling toilet bowl and pulling down the handle, over and over. "Faster, faster!" All you can do is shake your head and laugh.
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