Governor Schwarzenegger Struck Again
California Governor Schwarzenegger struck again last week. The Governor issued Executive Order S-21-09 requiring California utilities to obtain 33 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The previous requirement was 20 percent by 2010. This law compliments the State goal to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Yet the Executive Order comes with controversy on the horizon.
Citing a variety of generation, siting, permitting and transmission barriers and a preference to avoid a protectionist approach to energy, the Governor issued the Executive Order just days after threatening to veto a California Legislature bill with the same target. Compared to the legislative proposal, the Executive Order provides more flexibility for utilities to purchase out-of-state sources of renewable energy in partnership with the Western Governor Association’s “Western Renewable Energy Zone” initiative, and creates a more streamlined approach at the California Fish and Game Department for permitting of renewables while taking ecosystem protections into account. Some view this second provision as a key for large solar power projects planned in Southern California deserts. Senator Feinstein has raised concerns with some solar projects in this region due to impacts on the landscape and vulnerable species such as the tortoise.
Going forward, the California Air Resources Board will craft implementation rules that will take on sensitive issues including potential expansion of the definition of “renewable energy” to allow run-of-river hydroelectricity from British Columbia into the system, and will try to find a balance between creation of jobs and energy in California, ecosystem impacts, energy costs and putting more low carbon power sources on the grid. There will be no shortage of challenges to achieve this 33 percent by 2020 target. These challenges -- and of course the inevitable political and philosophical differences -- have not prevented stakeholders out West from finding a way to move forward. The US Senate could learn a thing or two from California as it continues to debate a federal approach to the same challenges.
