Less than a third of governments seeking a global climate agreement have submitted plans for reducing emissions, raising concerns over developing countries’ commitment to a deal months before talks are meant to culminate in Paris.
Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state that, unlike California, doesn’t offer incentives to utilities to buy or build sun-powered generation.
Members of a Senate committee tackling a huge backlog of roadway maintenance endorsed legislation that would generate $4 billion annually for repairs by increasing the gas tax 12 cents a gallon and boosting vehicle registration fees up to $100. Another panel approved bills to hike the legal smoking age to 21, regulate e-cigarettes and allow counties to place local tobacco taxes on the ballot.
Edison says the per-kilowatt fee, or one like it, is necessary to pay for the cost of maintaining the power grid.
“It’s conceivable that they might do gas rationing or travel limitations…those are conceivable results,” said Citrus Heights Mayor Sue Frost in an interview. “At the end of the day, the damage goes to the consumer.”
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed rules aimed at cutting methane emissions from oil and gas production by requiring energy companies to install new technologies at future wells.
Nearly two years later, the utility announced Monday that it would credit or refund tens of millions of dollars to customers who were overbilled during the botched rollout, under a proposed class-action lawsuit settlement between the utility and aggrieved customers.
When Arizona regulators allowed the state’s biggest utility to charge a special fee on residential customers with solar panels in 2013, the decision was groundbreaking. Now utilities across the country are making similar moves.
“Not all forms of renewable energy get counted. Large hydropower projects, such as those generated by the dams off Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville or Folsom Lake, are excluded. So are most rooftop solar panel installations, as opposed to the large solar arrays in the desert, which do count. That is a point of contention in the current bill, with utilities and solar installers arguing that rooftop systems also should count. . . . Electricity rates are rising with the policies. According to an estimate from the California Public Utilities Commission, rates have risen three to five percent due to the renewable requirements. In the competition last year to draw the battery factory for the electric carmaker Tesla, Nevada won out over California, the company’s home. Part of the package, according to the New York Times, was discounted electricity rates.”
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is seeking a rate increase of 25 to 30 percent, spread out over five years, in an effort to raise an extra $900 million for power and $230 million for water, a total of $1.13 billion, to fix aging infrastructure and comply with state mandates for renewable energy.
These are questions worth keeping in mind as our energy policy sorts itself out in this climate-change era. As it strives to end reliance on fossil fuel, will California help turn the rest of the West green? Or will the Golden State end up being dusted with coal ash?
The contradiction of modern climate liberals is that they promise lower energy bills and a wind-and-solar jobs boom, with zero trade-offs. But then they demand more redistribution to mitigate the economic and human damage that are the real outcome of their policies. Instead of offering to weatherize the homes of the least fortunate, how about trying to increase prosperity?
The U.S. average was $2.67 Friday, while California was still much higher at $3.79. The AAA estimates a huge drop could save drivers $500 by the end of the year.
A solid majority of Californians believe that global warming is already having an impact, and nearly two-thirds of residents say it has contributed to the state’s current drought, according to a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
The Wednesday night poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) finds strong support for not only the idea that climate change is linked to the state’s historic drought, but also equally robust support for a handful of legislative ideas to double down on the state’s response.