Obstacles Remain for Renewable Energy

"My hope is that despite the difficulties and the sovereignty and control issues, which are real and important, LADWP can develop an alternative path to move power from Imperial that might involve some sharing of part of some lines with Southern California Edison. Otherwise, I think you’re going to have a long and painful fight over building transmission lines across desert wilderness."

"I think it’s a little early to say that the California Solar Initiative failed. It is a difficult proposition to provide enough money for solar incentives while at the same time encouraging the industry to cut costs. I think the problem with the solar initiative has been bureaucratic delays and some unnecessary confusion. I’m hopeful that we can still turn that into something that will be successful."

"The top priorities for the renewable energy industry are the continuation of the federal production tax credit for wind, geothermal, and biomass and the extension of the investment tax credit for residential, solar, and large-scale solar plants. The investment tax credit is, in particular, the critical link for many of the projects proposed in the desert using concentrating solar. There was an effort to put an extension in the stimulus package that was recently proposed by the Senate, but those provisions again did not have sufficient votes. We’re really at the point where the federal government needs to step up and do something to help, because we’re carrying the financial load at the moment."