{"id":8428,"date":"2009-04-01T03:20:30","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T03:20:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-01T03:20:30","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T03:20:30","slug":"state-senate-passes-tougher-renewable-energy-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/01\/state-senate-passes-tougher-renewable-energy-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"State Senate Passes Tougher Renewable Energy Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SB14, which would require utilities to receive 33% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, <a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/greenspace\/2009\/03\/california-senate-votes-for-stronger-renewable-energy-mandate-.html\">passed the state Senate today<\/a>. &nbsp;This would be a more stringent standard than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=washingtonstory&#038;sid=ax.OH9h1m1Nk\">the federal bill introduced today by Henry Waxman<\/a>, which called for 25% from renewables by 2025. &nbsp;So this is a very aggressive standard that was championed by Darrell Steinberg.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said the bill, which now goes to the Assembly, would help pave the way to a more environmental friendly future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The green economy is the economy of the future,&#8221; Steinberg said. &#8220;The environment and the economy go together.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mod Squadder and corporate-friendly Sen. Rod Wright, along with Lou Correa, voted no. &nbsp;For Wright, who said he is &#8220;concerned that this bill is moving too fast,&#8221; the vote is particularly inexcusable, as his district is witness to the ravages of greenhouse gas-emitted pollution. &nbsp;The final vote was 21 aye, 16 no. &nbsp;Tony Strickland, who pretended to be an environmentalist during his campaign, predictably took a walk on the vote. &nbsp;What a coward.<\/p>\n<p>Capitol Weekly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capitolweekly.net\/article.php?_c=xviq0gmum6hfax&#038;issueId=xv12cqmbjchpgu&#038;xid=xviovqwxls998z\">has more<\/a>. &nbsp;This is a big win for Sen. Steinberg, and while the bill is certain to be amended (the &#8220;cap and trade&#8221; style appearance of &#8220;renewable energy credits&#8221; that utilities can pass to one another to get inside the 33% standard seems ripe for gaming the system), a strong claim on a very progressive priority gives us hope that progressives won&#8217;t be stiffed for this entire session.<\/p>\n<p>In a related development, Rep. Jerry McNerney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.house.gov\/apps\/list\/press\/ca11_mcnerney\/PR090331.shtml\">introduced three very good energy bills<\/a> at the federal level, including the Smart Grid Advancement Act, which would develop a smart electrical grid that could help reduce energy use during peak times, the Vehicles for the Future Act, which would build out the electrical infrastructure for plug-in hybrids and EVs, and the GREEN Act, which would provide $100 million in grants for developing career and technical training in green jobs. &nbsp;The three bills are explained <a href=\"http:\/\/www.house.gov\/apps\/list\/press\/ca11_mcnerney\/PR090331.shtml\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SB14, which would require utilities to receive 33% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, <a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/greenspace\/2009\/03\/california-senate-votes-for-stronger-renewable-energy-mandate-.html\">passed the state Senate today<\/a>. &nbsp;This would be a more stringent standard than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=washingtonstory&#038;sid=ax.OH9h1m1Nk\">the federal bill introduced today by Henry Waxman<\/a>, which called for 25% from renewables by 2025. &nbsp;So this is a very aggressive standard that was championed by Darrell Steinberg.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said the bill, which now goes to the Assembly, would help pave the way to a more environmental friendly future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The green economy is the economy of the future,&#8221; Steinberg said. &#8220;The environment and the economy go together.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mod Squadder and corporate-friendly Sen. Rod Wright, along with Lou Correa, voted no. &nbsp;For Wright, who said he is &#8220;concerned that this bill is moving too fast,&#8221; the vote is particularly inexcusable, as his district is witness to the ravages of greenhouse gas-emitted pollution. &nbsp;The final vote was 21 aye, 16 no. &nbsp;Tony Strickland, who pretended to be an environmentalist during his campaign, predictably took a walk on the vote. &nbsp;What a coward.<\/p>\n<p>Capitol Weekly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capitolweekly.net\/article.php?_c=xviq0gmum6hfax&#038;issueId=xv12cqmbjchpgu&#038;xid=xviovqwxls998z\">has more<\/a>. &nbsp;This is a big win for Sen. Steinberg, and while the bill is certain to be amended (the &#8220;cap and trade&#8221; style appearance of &#8220;renewable energy credits&#8221; that utilities can pass to one another to get inside the 33% standard seems ripe for gaming the system), a strong claim on a very progressive priority gives us hope that progressives won&#8217;t be stiffed for this entire session.<\/p>\n<p>In a related development, Rep. Jerry McNerney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.house.gov\/apps\/list\/press\/ca11_mcnerney\/PR090331.shtml\">introduced three very good energy bills<\/a> at the federal level, including the Smart Grid Advancement Act, which would develop a smart electrical grid that could help reduce energy use during peak times, the Vehicles for the Future Act, which would build out the electrical infrastructure for plug-in hybrids and EVs, and the GREEN Act, which would provide $100 million in grants for developing career and technical training in green jobs. &nbsp;The three bills are explained <a href=\"http:\/\/www.house.gov\/apps\/list\/press\/ca11_mcnerney\/PR090331.shtml\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[3405,58,120,1434,5468],"class_list":["post-8428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-3405","tag-58","tag-120","tag-1434","tag-5468"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2bW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}