California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Challenge
California Governor Says He’ll Stick To Environmental Plans, Despite Economic Crisis
President-elect Obama is 30 days from office. For a window on his future, turn west for a moment to a chief executive who is already up to his neck in the nation’s troubles.
This month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of financial Armageddon, as California faced a potential $40 billion deficit that threatened jobs, roads, schools and public safety. At the same time, he’s pushing some of the world’s toughest environmental laws to make California a leader on climate change.
California Debate Over Sunrise Powerlink May Be Near Decision
December 18, 2008 by admin
Filed under Solar News
Transmission lines near Boulevard in San Diego County. Many area residents have criticized a utility’s plan to erect what it calls a superhighway for green electricity as it tries to meet its renewable energy commitment.
The California Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the renewable energy transmission project, opposed by some environmentalists.
Reporting from Sacramento and Calipatria, Calif. - In the rural, arid flatlands near the Salton Sea, CalEnergy Generation is sitting on what California needs.
The Imperial County company taps steam heat from deep within the Earth’s crust to generate clean electricity, enough to light 238,000 homes.
There’s more where that came from. But whether further development of renewable energy ever happens at this Calipatria operation and dozens of proposed projects in California’s hinterlands may depend on what goes on in San Francisco, maybe as soon as today.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on a controversial transmission project known as the Sunrise Powerlink. The $1.9-billion high-voltage line would stretch more than 100 miles from Imperial County to San Diego, linking power plants in the desert to coastal cities hungry for their energy.
California Gives Green Light to Cap-and-Trade Action Plan
Regulators give final approval to wide ranging climate change package
The state of California has formally adopted the strictest environmental regulations anywhere in the US last week, committing to a package of measures designed to cut emissions 15 per cent by 2020.
Under the wide-ranging plans, the state will require utilities to generate a third of power from renewable sources by 2020 and will also introduce a raft of binding targets governing emissions from cars, oil refineries, buildings and landfill sites.
The primary mechanism for achieving the targets will be the adoption of a regional carbon cap-and-trade scheme, known as the Western Climate Initiative, as part of a wider coalition of western states and Canadian provinces designed to put a price on carbon emissions for the most polluting industries.
California Adopts Tough Climate Plan Despite Economic Downturn
Solar panels have been built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) surrounding the Rancho Seco nuclear power station near Sacramento, California. Local voters in 1989 elected to close the nuclear plant as it was similar to the ill fated Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California on Thursday adopted the nation’s most sweeping plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, issuing rules that could transform everything from the way factories operate to the appliances people buy and the fuel they put in their cars.
The Air Resources Board unanimously approved the plan despite warnings it will put costly new burdens on businesses at a time when the economy is in extreme crisis, with California forecasting a staggering budget gap of $41.8 billion through mid-2010.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he believes the regulations will spur the state’s economy and serve as a model for the rest of the country.
California Strategies To Meet Climate Goals
Solar photovoltaic pumping installation on a California roof.
California air regulators this week are poised to adopt a global warming plan outlining how the state will cut its greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years. The Air Resources Board says emissions must be cut by nearly a third to meet the targets mandated in a 2006 law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
If the plan is adopted, it will provide a broad outline for specific rules that state air regulators will consider in the coming years. The first requirements will take effect in 2012.
Here are some of the strategies for how California plans to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, or roughly a third of current levels:
Getting California Schools Off The Grid
December 9, 2008 by admin
Filed under Solar News
Glendale Community College solar panel installation
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec 09, 2008 — Today, California’s State & Consumer Services Agency (SCSA) announced the release of Grid Neutral: Electrical Independence for California Schools and Community Colleges, a step-by-step guide to help California schools and community colleges cut energy costs through on-site electricity generation. The guidebook is the first state-backed, comprehensive program for schools to use to create campuses that generate as much electrical energy as they consume and can be viewed here.
“We pulled together the best environmental experts and financial minds to create an easy-to-follow guide for school officials to invest smartly in green technologies and cut their production of greenhouse gases,” said SCSA Secretary Rosario Marin. “This guide will help officials navigate both the technical and cost phases of going green.”
Sun Rising on California’s Power Horizon
November 25, 2008 by admin
Filed under Installations, Solar News
Almost 1,000 solar panels stand over a vineyard irrigation pond at the Far Niente winery in Oakville, California.
Solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of California’s energy resources, but Bay Area residents are buying systems in increasing numbers, which is good news for the environment and the solar industry, advocates say.
Californians have more than 60 percent of the nation’s solar installations, and more than 66 percent of the state’s solar applications are in Northern California, according to a report released Monday by the Northern California Solar Energy Association, a nonprofit advocacy group.
For 2007, statewide there were 50,466 photovoltaic installations, yielding 244 megawatts of electricity, according to the report.
Governor Schwarzenegger Opens Governors’ Global Climate Summit
California Governor Schwarzenegger hosts the Governors' Global Climate Summit held in Los Angeles, Calif.
In Los Angeles today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger welcomes more than 800 attendees from more than 50 states, provinces and countries to the Governors’ Global Climate Summit. Following the Governor’s remarks, a pre-recorded video message will air from President-Elect Barack Obama on global warming and supporting the states that have taken decisive action to address this urgent issue.
The Governors’ Summit brings together U.S. and international leaders to develop cooperative partnerships and promote collaborative actions needed to combat climate change. This forum also provides an opportunity for states and provinces to partner to reduce emissions, to grow their green economies and to influence the position their national governments take in the next global agreement on climate change.
Harnessing The Sun’s Energy Is Becoming More Popular
July 7, 2008 by admin
Filed under Solar News, Videos
(CBS) It’s freezing in the Contessa Foods plant in Los Angeles, where workers process, package and ship tons of frozen vegetables, fish and meat each day.
“It’s almost like putting 200,000 refrigerators … in one place,” said John Blazevich, CEO of Contessa Premium Foods.
And it’s powered primarily by the sun. An array of paper-thin solar panels rolled across a roof the size of two football fields has helped cut Contessa’s energy use, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.
