News Room: SB 107: Renewable Energy Portfolio

Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 2X into law at the SunPower/Flextronics solar manufacturing plant in Milpitas on Tuesday, April 12.  Governor Brown and Senator Simitian were joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu for the signing ceremony and dedication of SunPower’s new facility.

More pictures are available at the link below.

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Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law a requirement that California get 33% of its electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy, by the year 2020.

Brown’s signature raises the former renewable-energy mandate of 20%. Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), author of the legislation, said the 33% benchmark would reduce air pollution and U.S. dependence on unstable foreign sources of oil, while creating more than 100,000 jobs. That number is based on research by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, a trade group representing renewable energy companies, according to Simitian’s staff.

“The new law will stimulate the economy and improve the environment, while protecting ratepayers from excessive costs,” Simitian said.

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Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill into law that requires the state’s public and private utilities to obtain at least 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.  He talked about the challenges of environmental policy and even invoked his old nickname:

“You can’t be afraid to be called a moonbeam, weird, deviant, interesting, unexpected and let’s get it done.  Senator will you come up here so we can sign this bill?  Clapping fades.”

The bill was written by Democratic State Senator Joe Simitian, who’s been pushing the change for several years.

“When we have hit 33% by 2020 ,we will look back on this day and say ‘look what California has done.’”

 

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Today Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 2X, putting California in the national forefront in its commitment to renewable energy. The bill authored by State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) requires private and public utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2020, raising the target from the current 20%, while providing the flexibility necessary to meet the higher standard. read more ...

The sun, the wind and other sources of renewable power would supply one-third of California’s electricity by the end of 2020 under a bill that finally cleared the Legislature on Tuesday after years of false starts.

The bill would give California one of the nation’s most aggressive policies for increasing the use of renewable power at a time when comprehensive federal energy legislation has been stalled in Washington. State Sen. Joe Simitian, who wrote the bill, cast it as a way of boosting California’s clean-energy industry, which has continued to grow in recent years despite the recession.

“If we send a clear signal to the market, the market will respond, and investment dollars and jobs and tax revenues will come to California,” said Simitian, D-Palo Alto. “If we don’t send a clear signal to the market, those dollars and jobs and tax revenues will go to some other state or country.”

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The California Senate today passed legislation authored by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) that would require private and public utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. Senate Bill 2X would raise the renewable target from the current 20%, while providing the flexibility necessary to meet the higher standard. The measure passed on a vote of 26-11. read more ...

In an opinion article, Senator Joe Simitian explains the importance of increasing the amount of electricity generated from renewable resources.

In 2006, the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ambitiously committed California to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by the end of 2010.

The utilities blanched and the skeptics snickered. But despite much naysaying, we’ll get pretty darned close. The California Public Utilities Commission said we’d reach 18 percent by the end of this month, and move past 20 percent some time in the new year.

That’s good, but we can do better. California’s commitment to green energy has invigorated the renewable-energy market. An explosion of investment in green technology has produced advances in solar and wind power and a smarter electric grid. Combined, they have brought within reach what once seemed an audacious goal: 33 percent renewables by 2020.

With our 2010 goals clearly in sight, I’ve again introduced legislation that calls for a commitment, in state law, to a 33 percent renewable portfolio standard by 2020. That measure, Senate Bill 23, is now before the Senate.

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State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) today introduced legislation to require private and public utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The bill would raise the renewable target from the current 20%, while providing the flexibility necessary to meet the higher standard. read more ...

California's environmental report card for electricity looks respectable. Hardly any dirty coal. Many new, efficient natural gas plants. Hydropower generated either in-state or imported. Solar popping up on rooftops and spreading across the desert. Wind farms on the ridges. And yet, in 2007, only 12 percent of the electricity used in California came from renewable resources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and small hydroelectric facilities. That's renewable as in sustainable — as in landing lightly on the environment. California is pushing to do better. A 2006 law, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, requires the state to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2010. read more ...