On Monday, the California Legislature will vote on a bill to raise California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, potentially requiring 33 percent of electricity generated by the state’s utilities to come from renewable resources by 2020.
State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) proposed the bill, SB 722, which has drawn attention from stakeholders like the Sierra Club, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and multiple labor unions. Each group has its own priorities for the bill’s impact, ranging from maximizing green job creation within the state to minimizing local air pollution. A key decision variable is how much of the state’s renewable electricity must be generated within its borders, since California currently imports a quarter of its electricity from outside state lines. Permitting more renewable electricity to be imported — say, from Arizona — could lower costs. Forcing more to be generated in state, on the other hand, would promote the creation of green jobs within California. As Senator Simitian told the San Jose Mercury News, “[i]t is an extraordinarily complex task, both in respect to the issue itself and the politics surrounding it.”
Similar bills proposed by Senator Simitian have failed in past years, although Governor Schwarzenegger used an executive order to enact the same 33 percent requirement after vetoing last year’s version of the bill. He cited the urgent need to streamline permitting processes for new generating capacity and transmission within the state as his reason for opposing it. Governor Schwarzenegger’s executive order will lose relevance very shortly, however, as a new governor will soon be leading California. The impending election, more than any other variable surrounding this bill, could motivate the compromises and negotiations needed to pass it this year.
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