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Senate Democrats propose toughening California clean-energy policies
http://bakken.com/news/id/232447/senate-democrats-propose-toughening-california-clean-energy-policies/
February 11, 2015
Timm Herdt | Ventura County Star
SACRAMENTO — Doubling down on California’s commitment to leading the nation in combating climate change and promoting clean energy, Democratic leaders in the state Senate on Tuesday introduced a package of bills that would establish more ambitious goals as the 21st century progresses.
Among the bills’ objectives are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; to reduce petroleum use in cars by 50 percent by 2030; to double the energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2039; and to produce half of the state’s electrical power from renewable sources by 2030.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, said the goal of these proposed standards is “to make sure California keeps leading in building the new economy of tomorrow.”
Except for the greenhouse-gas emissions standard, the objectives encompassed in the legislation reflect goals announced by Gov. Jerry Brown last month.
At an elaborate news conference on the Capitol lawn in which he spoke in front of a crowd that included construction workers wearing hard hats, de León repeatedly asserted the proposed legislation has as much to do with building the economy as with improving the environment.
“Choosing between climate change and policies that create jobs is a false choice,” he said. “Clean-tech companies in California are creating more jobs and investing more money than those in any other state.”
Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, a co-author of the state’s landmark 2006 climate change legislation which set the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, is now authoring the bill to extend and expand those goals.
She was scheduled to be a featured speaker at the news conference, but was unable to attend because her flight from Burbank Airport was canceled because of mechanical problems with the plane. Pavley had been in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning to speak at a conference of the Society of Automotive Engineers on hybrid and electric vehicles technology.
With the state on target to reach its 2020 goal, Pavley asserts the new goal of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 has been determined by the state Air Resources Board as technologically feasible and scientifically necessary to prevent the most costly effects of climate change.
Although de León and his colleagues were joined by executives from clean-tech companies and officials from construction trade unions, the proposals met with immediate criticism from representatives of traditional industries, who asserted that any green jobs created in meeting these goals would be more than offset by the loss of jobs in traditional industries.
“Businesses and consumers are now paying increasingly higher bills for our current climate change policies,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. “We urge Sen. de León to design his climate change policies in a way that ensures California businesses can grow jobs in all sectors of the economy.”
Dorothy Rothrock, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, echoed those concerns.
“California manufacturers now pay electricity rates more than 70 percent higher than the national average,” she said. “The policies may spur new green jobs to grow in the state, but those numbers could be small compared to the thousands of manufacturing jobs that will be lost or not created in California if we burden manufacturers with higher costs.”
Republican lawmakers asserted the same point.
Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Nicolaus, noted prices for electrical power and gasoline in California are higher than elsewhere in the country. The Legislature, he said, must balance climate change policy “with the real effect it’s having on constituents. We need to be honest about the true cost of this policy going forward.”
De León asserted that renewable energy from solar and wind power is reaching a tipping point at which its cost is on par with that generated by the burning of fossil fuels.
Renewable energy facilities, he said, “create jobs here, create revenues here, and they aren’t going anywhere. An economy built on fossil fuels is an economy built on shifting sands.”
http://bakken.com/news/id/232447/senate-democrats-propose-toughening-california-clean-energy-policies/
February 11, 2015
Timm Herdt | Ventura County Star
SACRAMENTO — Doubling down on California’s commitment to leading the nation in combating climate change and promoting clean energy, Democratic leaders in the state Senate on Tuesday introduced a package of bills that would establish more ambitious goals as the 21st century progresses.
Among the bills’ objectives are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; to reduce petroleum use in cars by 50 percent by 2030; to double the energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2039; and to produce half of the state’s electrical power from renewable sources by 2030.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, said the goal of these proposed standards is “to make sure California keeps leading in building the new economy of tomorrow.”
Except for the greenhouse-gas emissions standard, the objectives encompassed in the legislation reflect goals announced by Gov. Jerry Brown last month.
At an elaborate news conference on the Capitol lawn in which he spoke in front of a crowd that included construction workers wearing hard hats, de León repeatedly asserted the proposed legislation has as much to do with building the economy as with improving the environment.
“Choosing between climate change and policies that create jobs is a false choice,” he said. “Clean-tech companies in California are creating more jobs and investing more money than those in any other state.”
Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, a co-author of the state’s landmark 2006 climate change legislation which set the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, is now authoring the bill to extend and expand those goals.
She was scheduled to be a featured speaker at the news conference, but was unable to attend because her flight from Burbank Airport was canceled because of mechanical problems with the plane. Pavley had been in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning to speak at a conference of the Society of Automotive Engineers on hybrid and electric vehicles technology.
With the state on target to reach its 2020 goal, Pavley asserts the new goal of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 has been determined by the state Air Resources Board as technologically feasible and scientifically necessary to prevent the most costly effects of climate change.
Although de León and his colleagues were joined by executives from clean-tech companies and officials from construction trade unions, the proposals met with immediate criticism from representatives of traditional industries, who asserted that any green jobs created in meeting these goals would be more than offset by the loss of jobs in traditional industries.
“Businesses and consumers are now paying increasingly higher bills for our current climate change policies,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. “We urge Sen. de León to design his climate change policies in a way that ensures California businesses can grow jobs in all sectors of the economy.”
Dorothy Rothrock, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, echoed those concerns.
“California manufacturers now pay electricity rates more than 70 percent higher than the national average,” she said. “The policies may spur new green jobs to grow in the state, but those numbers could be small compared to the thousands of manufacturing jobs that will be lost or not created in California if we burden manufacturers with higher costs.”
Republican lawmakers asserted the same point.
Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Nicolaus, noted prices for electrical power and gasoline in California are higher than elsewhere in the country. The Legislature, he said, must balance climate change policy “with the real effect it’s having on constituents. We need to be honest about the true cost of this policy going forward.”
De León asserted that renewable energy from solar and wind power is reaching a tipping point at which its cost is on par with that generated by the burning of fossil fuels.
Renewable energy facilities, he said, “create jobs here, create revenues here, and they aren’t going anywhere. An economy built on fossil fuels is an economy built on shifting sands.”