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The collapsing oil price that is reshaping the global economy could derail the green energy revolution by making renewable power sources prohibitively bad value, experts have warned.

The Pacific Coast represents the world’s fifth-largest economy, with a GDP of $2.8 trillion. By working together we are transforming our economies and influencing world markets for the better. Our regional model shows that it is possible to take serious action on climate change and simultaneously expand an economy with well-paying jobs. And we believe it can be a blueprint for other regions to take action.

Living costs in California are already much higher than those of other states, which is not only a factor in attracting job-creating investment but is the main reason California has, under an alternative Census Bureau measurement, the nation’s highest poverty rate.

Chevron traces its history to 1879 when Pacific Coast Oil Co. was founded. It was bought, in 1900, by the vast industrial empire of the Standard Oil Co. & Trust, which once controlled almost all oil production, processing, marketing and transportation in the United States.

The average price of regular gasoline in the U.S. slid to the lowest level in more than 10 months, dropping 11.6 cents in the three weeks that ended Friday to $3.26 a gallon, according to a survey of gasoline retailers..

For the past decade, the U.S. shale boom has mostly passed by California, forcing oil refiners in the state to import expensive crude.

Now that’s changing as energy companies overcome opposition to forge ahead with rail depots that will get oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale.

For decades, the German people have been among the world’s most environmentally conscious. The strongest sign of this has been the commitment of successive governments to Energiewende – or “energy change” – designed to make the economy predominantly dependent on renewable sources such as wind and solar power. Renewables today account for 23 per cent of electricity production, a figure set to rise to 65 per cent by 2035.

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This emphasis places burdens on households and businesses. The cost of the subsidies offered by the German government to green energy producers is passed on to consumers. Domestic energy bills are 48 per cent higher in Germany than the European average. Germany’s Mittelstand companies are even worse off. Their costs are twice the level facing their US rivals, many of whom benefit from cheap shale gas.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) is providing significant assistance with electric rates to 10 California employers so they can keep, expand or launch new operations in California rather than leave the state. In just over four months, the utility’s new Economic Development Rate, which was approved by state regulators this spring at PG&E’s request, has already saved or potentially added a total of 861 jobs in the state.

Crude oil would cost at least $150 a barrel due to supply disruptions in the Middle East and North Africa were it not for rising production in North Dakota and Texas, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) chief Adam Sieminski said in an interview on Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Tuesday unveiled a proposed roadmap for developing massive solar and wind projects in California’s Mojave Desert while trying to minimize damage to desert habitat and animals. The plan — covering 22 million acres of public and private land— follows a renewable-energy building boom in southeastern California’s Mojave desert during the first term of the Obama administration, when the federal government gave billions of dollars in loans to developers siting sprawling, utility-scale solar projects in virgin desert.

The second zip code is 93640, the Central Valley town of Mendota, population 11,800, with a median annual household income of $28,660, which is less than the $36,625 sticker price of a battery-powered Honda Fit EV. Mendota is in the top 10 percent of California zip codes for pollution and vulnerabilities such as childhood asthma, according to the CalEnviroScreen. And how many vehicles were purchased there under state subsidies? Exactly one, a lone car whose owner received $2,500.

Gov. Jerry Brown, appealing to world leaders for joint action on climate change, issued a forceful defense Tuesday of plans to expand California’s cap-and-trade program to vehicle fuels next year.

NV Energy is now offering a pilot program that provides a discount on electric rates for new businesses that locate in the state of Nevada.  The program, created by legislation and approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, provides for a total of 50 MW of power to be allocated to new business statewide.

Californians already pay the nation’s second highest gas tax at 68 cents a gallon — and now it will go up again in January to pay for a first-in-the-nation climate change law.

Industrial companies and other businesses paid a combined $331.8 million for carbon credits in California’s latest cap-and-trade auction, state officials said Thursday.