Alternative Energy HQ solar power for homes, wind energy, and bio fuel issues
California has been trying to drive clean energy standards with it’s regulations and requirements for alternative energy production by its larger utilities in recent years. To date that number has been a 20% renewable standard which has been a struggle for the utilities to comply with so far. Now regulators have adopted new rules which would require those utilities to draw as much as one third of their energy from wind, solar, geo thermal in the next 10 years. This move could push other regulators across the country to follow suit.
On the flip side are consumers who fear paying higher rates for their energy as a result of generating these new energy forms. Concerns about costs and unemployment haunt the debate. But those in favor of alternative energy solutions tout the growth of jobs in these new green tech areas.
Interesting stuff from today’s NYT:
California’s ambitious climate change agenda could evaporate in a vote in November that pits renewable energy advocates and allies against oil companies and manufacturers.
The U.S. Senate has scuttled President Barack Obama’s goal of putting a price on carbon, leaving state and regional efforts the key drivers in the effort to move the country past coal and oil.
California is the clear U.S. leader on addressing climate change, unless California voters kill a landmark 2006 state law known as AB32, which was intended to cut carbon dioxide emission to 1990 levels by 2020.
On Nov. 2 Californians will vote on Proposition 23, which would put AB32 on hold. The law would go back into effect when unemployment, now more than 12 percent, has remained at or below 5.5 percent for four quarters, which is not expected to happen for years.
“If it passes I think it is a setback for this clean energy future we’ve been talking about that is as significant as the failure to produce comprehensive energy and climate legislation in the Congress,” said John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, a research institution.
But if the effort to bury California’s policy fails, as he expects, that result could re-energize advocates. “It finally could signal, ‘O.K, we’re ready to get on with the project,”’ he said.
California, the largest U.S. manufacturing state, has more than 10 percent of the U.S. population and an economy that would rank eighth in the world if it were ranked as a separate country. That gives the state the heft to set trends.
So what do you think? Please comment below with your thoughts on whether California regulators pusing alternative energy output by the major utilities is a good idea or not.
