By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
California’s Assembly has a huge opportunity before it right now, and they should seize it posthaste.
Before them is a bill to move the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 100% by 2045. It would match the most aggressive RPS in the nation (Hawaii) and put the world’s fifth (or sixth, depending on who you believe) largest economy on a path to 100% renewable energy. And it would be a huge step forward for the United States because, as everyone knows, solar and renewable energy trends start in California and then make their way to other states in the country shortly thereafter.
Have I mentioned the California Assembly should pass this bill immediately if not sooner?
Bill McKibbon, founder of 350.org, wrote on the subject in The New York Times and said this:
If any place on earth can handle this transition, it’s California, home to some of the planet’s strongest sunshine and many of its finest clean-tech entrepreneurs.
McKibbon speaks the truth. The state has long been home to the most burgeoning solar industry in the country. And despite new challengers emerging each year, California remains atop the Solar Energy Industries Association’s list of Top Solar States year after year after year.
Its grid had already absorbed more solar and wind energy (though it is mostly solar in California, let’s be honest) than any other grid in the United States, and they are well on their way to transitioning from net metering to whatever the next compensation plan for solar users is. And the results have been staggeringly positive.
It’s the perfect laboratory to show what happens when utilities stop fighting the Solar Revolution and embrace it instead, and they’ve shown the path toward rooftop solar coexisting with utility-scale solar and beyond. Why not take the opportunity to give it one last push over the finish line?
The vote could come as soon as this month, and if it passes it could be historic. Let’s make sure the California assembly knows we’re behind them. Let’s make sure they pass this law – and make solar history.