California Ups Renewable Energy Mandate to 33% by 2020
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Executive Order to Raise California’s Renewable Energy Goals to 33% by 2020 and Clear Red Tape for Renewable Energy Projects
In an executive order signed on Monday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger committed to getting a third of California’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Schwarzenegger made the announcement while speaking at a solar panel factory in Sacramento. California Executive Order S-14-08 puts the state’s renewable energy requirement at 33% by 2020, securing its place as the most aggressive renewable energy mandate in the country.
The order comes Just three days after Schwarzenegger issued another unprecedented executive order to state agencies telling them to make preparations for rising sea levels caused by global warming.
Schwarzenegger’s aggressive target, however, cannot be met without additional changes in the current policy landscape. In fact, just two weeks ago, California voters soundly rejected Proposition 7 which sought to increase the state’s renewable energy standard. Environmental groups were nearly unanimous in their opposition to Prop 7 because it created an exclusion for smaller utilities and power providers. Schwarzenegger said:
“…we won’t meet that goal doing business as usual, where environmental regulations are holding up environmental progress in some cases. This executive order will clear the red tape for renewable projects and streamline the permitting and siting of new plants and transmission lines. With this investment in renewable energy projects, California has a bright energy future ahead that will help us fight climate change while driving our state’s green economy.”
The Governor will propose legislative language that will codify the new higher standards and require all utilities, public and private, to meet the 33 percent target and spread implementation costs across all ratepayers with safeguards for low-income customers. The executive order will also allow for the expansion of eligibility for California’s RPS program to renewable energy generation from other western states.
The Governor made today’s announcement at the site of OptiSolar’s new plant in Sacramento, which will begin manufacturing solar panels in early 2009. When fully built out, the one-million-square-foot plant will be the largest photovoltaic solar panel manufacturing plant in North America.
Image: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
We can’t sit back and wait for slow federal or state government to make the changes we need. Take action now.
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[...] governor is taking aggressive leadership on the environment by issuing executive orders that increase the state’s renewable energy requirement and that order state agencies to begin preparing for sea-level rise resulting from global [...]
wow, mandates! mandates that will impose higher costs on people because it doesn’t care whether the technology is up to that level or not. nice.
The midwesterns states especially Minnesota, South and North Dakota should follow in this same vain. It is so damn windy in those three states that we could easily get those three operating to 33% renewable through wind alone by 2020. And by the year 2020, technologies will have advanced enough that much of the power produced in certain areas should be transmitable to much larger areas than is currently allowed by our poor infrastructure and transmition technology.
Step up, write you congress persons both state and federal and start making the commitment.
What’s the saying, No one can change everything, but everyone can change something…
Global climate is everyone problems.Let’s make world a better place to live.
Well it is a good step in the right direction, but I think 2020 is too far in the future. Why not a more aggressive plan? Get us off foreign oil ASAP.
Glasshalffull totally missed the point of wind energy. You get effectively 0 more energy in a place that is really windy as opposed to a place that is just windy.
Building more wind energy facilities is how you get more energy from the wind.
Also, Prop 7 sucks. It would effectively close down all but the top 3 or 4 power companies and eliminate almost all of California’s current green energy plants. And it gives a very relaxed timeline for the 3 or 4 power companies to be a little bit more green.
[...] >>See Also: California Ups Renewable Energy Mandate to 33% by 2020 [...]
[...] The report shows that a national renewable electricity standard would be an important step toward solving global warming and revitalizing our economy. To date, 28 states and the District of Columbia have passed renewable electricity standards, with California requiring 33 percent. [...]
[...] any of those new sources of renewable energy from out of state, something that he has said since he first signed the executive order in 2008 mandating a 33 percent renewable energy standard. In addition, Mr. Schwarzenegger has said any [...]