California's Not As Green As It Thinks It Is

"While the state's major utilities argue they are on the way to a renewable energy building boom, independent analysts predict California probably will not meet a regulatory deadline -- one frequently touted by (Governor) Schwarzenegger -- that calls for 20 percent of the state's electricity use to be fueled by renewable power by 2010. "

"Since the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard went into effect four years ago, requiring utilities to contract for much more renewable power, only 241 megawatts of new projects have been built"

"A small charge that is assessed to every utility ratepayer in the state in their monthly electric bill to help subsidize renewable power has generated $319 million so far. None of it has been spent. "

So what is holding back California from increasing its renewable portfolio?

"It is an extraordinarily complicated process compared to any other state in the country," said Ryan Wiser, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who has studied efforts by 21 states to mandate increases in the use of renewable power. Wiser wrote a paper on California's process titled "Does it Have to be this Hard? Implementing the Nation's Most Complex Renewables Portfolio Standard."

Wiser said that here, unlike anywhere else, two state agencies -- the California Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission -- have regulatory oversight of renewable projects, forcing developers and utilities to work with two distinct bureaucracies.

The result of a complex law requiring much regulative oversight "is that renewable-power projects take several years to complete in California. Compare California's 241 new megawatts of renewable power to Texas' more than 2,200 megawatts of wind energy since it adapted renewable targets in 1999.

Texas' legislation enacting the renewable requirement was 10 paragraphs long. California's legislation was 13 pages."