California's clean energy conundrum

If California requires its utilities to get one-third of their energy from solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources -- rather than coal or gas -- will that help or hurt the state economically? A struggle is underway to influence public opinion, with business interests claiming that it will cost consumers in higher electric bills, and environmental groups touting the jobs that clean-tech industry will bring to the state.

Today a new report, Harvesting California's Renewable Energy Resources: A Green Jobs Business Plan was released  by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT), a Sacramento-based nonprofit. It surveys major studies and concludes that if California gets a third of its power from renewables by 2020, as pending legislation would require, as much as $60 billion would be pumped into the state economy. Manufacturing could increase by some 200,000 jobs.

California currently requires utilities to reach 20% renewable energy by 2010. But that is not enough to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, as the law requires, according to the Air Resources Board.

-- Margot Roosevelt

Photo: Windmills in Livermore, Calif. Wind farm construction is slowing because Congress has not renewed clean energy tax credits. Credit: Ben Margot/Associated Press

Comments

[V. John White]

The Times' Marc Lifsher has just posted a story that California's unemployment rate increased in July to 7.3%, which is almost 2 points higher than just a year ago. Unemployment was worse in the Inland Empire, increasing to 8.9%

The "Harvesting California's Renewable Energy Resources" report can be found at www.cleanpower.org. The report describes the renewable job opportunities in several of California's counties with the highest unemployment rates, including Imperial, San Bernardino, Fresno, and Kern Counties, along with LA.

California's abundant home grown wind, solar, geothermal, and bio-energy resources can cut our dependence on high priced, imported fossil fuels, and create an enormous supply chain of green, 21st century jobs and investment that can serve not only the state's energy needs, but support renewable investment and job creation throughout the West.

[David Pettit]

We can't let short-term fears slow California's leadership towards a non-fossil-fuel future. Those are the fears that the oil and coal companies are counting on to keep their profits high while the planet heats up. Let's not get fooled again.

[Scott H.]

Wind, Solar, Geothermal, Wave Technology, HHO, alternative biofuel ... it's time to get off our hands and do something that brings both physical and political power back to this state and to this country.

Of course it will create jobs. Of course it will bring in money to the state -- especially at a time when unemployment is rising and the state budget is in crisis. So where's the debate?

Let's hope the legislators listen to the greater voice of the people and not those of the oil companies.

[exstrah]

I hate to spoil your fun but, it's not that easy. We don't have the energy to make enough alluminum to build enough wind power generators to make a diference. The wind generators must be close to the where the power will be consumed or it will be mostly lost. And we don't have the money for the kind of commitment neccessary. And we don't have the political will to get anything major done.

The population is too short sighted. A good example of that is the recent drop in fuel prices resulted in an increase in SUV sales. People don't seem to get that we are on the down ward side of oil supply. The alarm bells should be ringing, but not enough people realize that the end of oil is coming. We had better be ready!

[sheila]

ok, first of all, we need, once and for all, to be clear what "energy independence" really means. people throw that phrase around, like it's the holy grail (ok, nobody throws the holy grail around, but stay with me) of Energy Solutions. guess what? there is NO SUCH THING as "american oil," because our oil is not nationalized. Big Oil will own and sell 100% of "our" oil, mostly overseas, no matter where it is drilled, and will keep ALL the money.

get it? no "patriotic duty discount." no "we feel so bad you've been lining our pockets that we will suddenly stop exporting and drop our prices to $1 a gallon right here in the US of A" program is coming. there is no "we" in "Big Oil." so drilling in the US is NOT independence from anything. not from Foreign Oil, not from Big Oil, and not from pricing and supply manipulations. same exact guys just getting more land, more subsidies, more opportunities to destroy our planet and more money, while we still all get screwed.

the same is true when it comes to Big Energy. "We" will not be "independent" of ANYTHING if huge, centralized Big Energy power plants are built, even if the fuel is OUR sun and OUR wind. get it? OK, so we may be "free" from some future coal plant (or not), but we will be forced to pay for the capital infrastructure costs for ALL the wind and solar "farms," then we will pay WHATEVER UTILITIES CHARGE US for the power. got it? we will pay for it, but we will still own.... NOTHING.

we will still be enslaved to the same folks who are hijacking us now, if we follow the CEERT model of destroying all OUR wilderness for Big Energy Monopolists to build wasteful, unnecessary, environmentally devastating centralized "renewable" (ha!) infrastructure, then sell us OUR wind and OUR sun for a huge profit. don't believe the hype, people. no independence is comin' as long as Big Oil and Big Energy are running this circus...

the ONLY way we can be "independent," is by OWNING OUR OWN GENERATION AT POINT OF USE. even if we are grid-tied, we could have a lot of independence with the right policies. germany, spain, japan and 35 other nations have had incredible success installing point of use rooftop PV because they PAY FOR THE POWER at generous rates. infrastructure is paid by homeowners, whose homes increase in value, and new grid costs are non-existent. wilderness is saved, and far more skilled jobs are created than if we had big power plants. if we can oversize our systems, we will be able to plug in our cars soon, and be INDEPENDENT of Big Energy AND Big Oil.

That, my friends, is "energy independence." do you want it or not? if so, contact Jared Huffman's office and insist that AB 1920 be amended to include Feed in Tariffs no lower than Germany's, and that we be allowed to oversize our systems to feed excess power into the grid. Contact your city council/County Board of Supervisors and insist that they fund AB 811 so you can get an affordable loan to install PV. microwind and efficiency improvements.

[Jim Harvey]

I think the T Boone Pickens commercials say it all. The people that locked us into oil and brought us $4 gallon gasoline are the same people that now want to lock us into perpetual energy dependence and bring us $4 kw electricity.

We need to wake up and see this for what it is. Big Energy cannot allow an energy independent America because it would end a century of unchallenged monopolistic control. But, as solar panel and micro wind technologies advance and becomes less expensive, this is exactly what they fear could happen. There is a rush by Big Energy to lock in enormous tax incentives and subsidies for renewables, but only for the investor owned large utility scale renewable projects. If we were allowed the same gifts to lower our cost of installing rooftop solar and wind, and then allowed the same guaranteed buybacks that these Big Energy corporations are given, we would see the same clean renewable energy revolution now occurring in Germany, Japan, and 40 other countries around the world.

Our lawmakers have sold us out by preventing legislation that would not only give us the same financial incentives to install rooftop PV solar they afford to Big Energy, but also allow us to oversize our systems and place surplus power back into the grid at fair buyback rates. This is how you reach the state mandated Renewable energy generation totals(like Germany did) - not by killing off millions of acres of pristine wilderness just so Big Energy can continue its stranglehold on us and keep us on an uneven playing field.

Let's all tell our state lawmakers to stop letting Big Energy control them. They work for us, and it's time they start acting like it.

[FredMidleton]

Energy Independence. From what? There is no cheaper energy than carbon - natural, organic, """Harvesting California's Renewable Energy Resources"" available. These alternatives have a heavy price. The costs will undermine existing economic conditions. Climate change is occurring. Politics has hijacked science within this discussion. Ask yourself, Cold Climate vs Warm Climate. The fingerprints to this change has repetitive clues that will appear in either case. Clues that are identical during any climate change like unsettled weather. Make sure that you understand what a change to COLD climate and alternative energy - wind, solar, bi-o and the possible long term effects of a no wind-solar(clouds) climate for 100 years will do to this proposed high dollar infrastructure.

Both wind and solar electric is best via DC transmission. Current wind-solar energy is heavily subsidised thru convoluted tax-PUC requirements. In addition, PUC - REA handicaps large electrical utility (PG and E in Calif) thru mandatory elect. energy purchasing requirements. These companies are required to purchase electricity at inflated costs that are then passed onto the consumer. More wind-solar will raise elect cost to consumers substantially.

The watermelon bible defines the commandments that are herding this current energy SNAFU.

Independence will take a minimum of 20 yrs. Oil must remain as a necessary resource and the demand for more oil more as the population continues to grow. Eventually oil needs will diminish. But never disappear in the next 100 years. Significant electricity generation increase will need to be done. Within this 20 yrs time table transportation will be augmented via electric vehicles - auto and mass transit. But not overnight. Oil will continue for some decades. Hydrogen fuel technology is not practical for decades.

Infrastructure for Cold Climate is significantly different than Warm Climate. Unless Nuke Elect. generation in SIGNIFICANT amounts is done either way.

And if my words are confusing, go study Dr. Buteyko's respiratory/asthma work concerning CO2. Make sure you get our future direction CORRECT the first time. On this energy independence issue, there is no second chance.

[George]

Renewables, solar, wind, but what about using all the household garbage that is landfilled in the L A area. There is enough energy in household rubbish that could be used, hot water and electricity, so why are you landfilling, polluting the atmosphere with methane gas, and toxics leaching out into the ground water

[V John White]

The choice isn't between big energy and small energy, but between green energy and fossil fuels. In the last 10 years, California has steadily increased its dependence on coal and natural gas, while renewables investment has been stalled by agency squabbling, bureaucratic red tape, and arbitrary cost caps tied to the projected price of fossil fuel.

We are blessed with some of the world's best wind, solar, and geothermal resources. But we have been asleep for the last 20 years, paying lipservice to renewables, while we bulked up on fossil fuels. We treat renewables like a green side salad on the greasy fossil fuel burger plate. Energy from the sun, wind, and the heat of the earth, along with much greater energy efficiency, needs to become our main energy course, with the remaining fossil, hydro, and nuclear plants used to balance out the electric system.

California provides significant incentives for rooftop solar. Not as generous as Germany, but better than anywhere in the US. Feed in tariffs are a logical next step, especially for larger installations. Feed in tariff legislation (SB 1714 by Senator Gloria Negrete McCloud of Chino) is moving in Sacramento, but faces intense opposition from utilities. There are other distributed clean energy sources, such as fuel cells using renewable gas from wastewater treatment plants, animal waste digesters, and landfill gas which can provide around the clock power with zero emisisons, near where the electricity demand is highest.

Other technologies, such as the ICE bear air conditioning energy storage system,(ice-energy.com) reduces peak electricity demand, by saving and shifting elctricity use to night time hours, when electricity is less expensive and more abundant than on hot afternoons.

We need all the renewables we can bring on line, big and small, utility scale and rooftop, in our neighborhoods and from the mountain passes of Tehachapi, the geothermal wells by the Salton sea, and carefully sited solar plants close to transmission lines in the Mohave desert. Along with rooftop solar, storage technologies, and zero emission fuel cells, we can displace much of our current fossil fuel consumption, and avoid builiding thousands of megawatts of new fossil fuel power plants that are the preferred utility alternative.

As Jane Williams of California Communities Against Toxics pointed out during the press briefing held last Friday to release the new green jobs report, our choice is clear: Do we build thousands of megawatts of new fossil fuel plants in already polluted communities, and become even more dependent on imported natural gas and LNG from Russia and Indonesia? Or do we get to work building our homegrown renewables, advanced storage and fuel cell technologies, and efficieny as if the health of our economy and of our communities and of the earth, depended on it.

The Legislature and the Governor have an extraordinary opportunity to lead California toward a future of homegrown green energy, big and small, with enoromous economic development and job opporutnities. But sadly, it looks like another Legislative session is going to end with no action on a comprehensive green energy legislation. Our leaders need to overcome utility lobbying and political paralysis, and put our state back on track as a leader in renewable energy, big and small. They need to pass a 33% renewable portfolio standard, expand homeowner and business incentives for rooftop solar and renewable fuel cells, and turn walk into talk, rhetoric into reality.

[Solar Cali Girl]

No surprise that CEERT is telling people to change their roof tops instead of telling the utilities to change the way they are powering California. CEERT's Board of Directors is made up of utility-insiders. CEERT's board is made up of people who do or have worked for: Enron, PG&E, Sempra, SDG&E, Edison, CE Generation,GE, and Calpine. CEERT, like NRDC, is a utility shill that wants to influence California's energy policy in the guise of real environmentalism. Check it out at http://confusedinsolarcalifornia.blogspot.com.

[V John White]

First time I've ever been called a utility shill in my life.

CEERT was founded in 1990 as a coaltion of renewable energy technology developers and public interest environmental groups working on energy and climate. Our board is made of a diverse group of individuals, equally balanced between people who work for renewable energy and green technology companies, and environmentalists from the Sierra Club, Environment California, Union of Concerned Scientists, Environmental Rights Alliance, and NRDC. On critical policy issues, the public interest folks have the final say over the renewable companies, and we have often been at odds and sometimes, in intense conflict, with both investor owned and municipal utilities.

We have helped launch and led the fight for the million solar roof initiative, and are working to expand rooftop solar installations through feed in tariffs and expanded net metering.

We lobbied the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to stop new coal plant investments in Utah, and worked with Mayor Villaraigosa to move LADWP toward a 35% renewable portfolio standard and a plan to reduce the city's dependence on coal.

We worked with Senator Don Perata to pass legislation stopping the both investor owned and municipal utilities from signing new contracts for dirty coal power.

We have spent nearly 20 years in the trenches at the State Public Utilities' Commission, arguing on behalf of a renewable energy future, up against the unlimited financial resources of the utilities. We don't think of ourselves as insiders, and don't get intervenor compensation or invitations to utility-hosted soirees or overseas trips.

We have also worked to resolve conflicts between wind developers and wildlife advocates , helped reach agreement between the wind industry and Audobon on statewide guidelines for monitoring bird populations and reducing avian mortality.

We are highly critical of utilities for their failure to have their green PR and "megawords" be matched by real megawatts of renewables. Sometimes, we disagree with the strident positions taken renewable generators, who complain that California's permitting red tap is impossible to navigate. And sometimes we disagree with passionate but illi informed environmentalists, who think we can meet all our energy and climate needs without builiding large scale wind, solar, and geothermal projects, and that rooftop solar is the only renewables that we should support.

Most recently, we have joined forces with environmental justice communities in opposing a huge expansion of fossil fuel power power plants, most of which would be sited in low income neighborhoods already impacted by pollution. They share our belief that California's abundant solar, wind, and geothermal resources are a better way to go.

At a time when our economy and environment is threatened by our dependence on fossil fuels, we need to work together to green the electric grid, while continuing to protect our air, water, and land. It will be hard sometimes, and there will be conflicts and arguments. But we can get there if we listen to each other, and work together toward a greener and truly sustainable energy future.