VoteSolar.org reported on 9/11: (Environmental Defense Fund has it here)
Awesome news from the Golden State! California lawmakers just passed SB 350, which will increase the amount of renewable resources powering the state to 50 percent and double the energy efficiency of existing buildings by 2030. The bill now goes to Governor Brown, who is expected to sign SB 350 into law. This is a bold move that raises the clean energy bar for our state, our country, and our world.
Massachusetts should follow the Golden State and pass similar legislation. Oil prices are low now, but it is a finite resource, and we should be preparing ourselves for a renewable energy future. Equally important, or maybe even more important, we import almost all (or all?) of our fossil fuels, but our leadership in education, research, and high technology can allow us to build green energy jobs in the Bay State.
stomv says
SB 350 stripped out the oil provision. It was initially designed to reduce fossil fuel consumption across all sectors, including gasoline. That part got dropped.
Still a great result, and I don’t think the advocates are going to give up on figuring out how to reduce gasoline consumption. And yes, I do think Massachusetts could be emboldened by CA.
For our RPS, I have three recommendations:
1. Include the ~14% of sales that are to municipal light plants. Currently, if you are served by a muni (e.g. Belmont Light instead of Eversource), you are not part of the renewable portfolio standard. Your electric company isn’t buying and retiring RECs, which means that your electric company isn’t driving investment in new renewable generation to displace coal/gas/oil-fired generation.
2. Our RPS goes up by 1% per year. This year, it’s 10% (IIRC). Next year, 11%. Etc. Let’s ramp it up. Let’s increase it by 1.5% or 2% per year.
3. Continue (and more aggressively) working to transfer fossil-fueled non-electric energy use to electric energy use. For heating, that means electric air-source heat pumps. For vehicles, that means PHEVs and EVs. Our electricity is reducing its carbon content every year, but our natural gas and fuel oil and gasoline isn’t. The more we can fuel switch from fossil fuels to electricity, the more of our energy use we can convert to lower-emitting.