Prop 23 Threatening Out-of-State Renewable Industry Too

October 2nd, 2010 by Susan Kraemer

The new attack by the oil industry on clean energy in California using the Prop 23 ballot initiative doesn’t have only California’s nascent green energy industry on tenterhooks.

Nervous wind developers as far away as Montana are now holding off on reserving transmission space, till they see how much renewable energy California will need to import from out of state.

If the oil industry dupes enough voters in the November elections next month, then California’s clean energy legislation AB32 – that California passed in 2006 – will be repealed, before it even takes effect, and affect the fortunes of renewable companies from Wyoming to Montana.

If the oil companies win, one result will be to kill the requirement that California get 33% of its energy from renewables by 2020. CARB tried to shore up certainty by endorsing it this month, but if AB32 is repealed, then the 33% Renewable Energy Standard (RES) will actually be plunged into legal limbo.(pdf)

Only if voters reject the oil companies’ Prop 23, will the state keep the clean energy standards continuing to spur investment within California, and also driving renewable energy development in surrounding states to meet it. California, with 20% of the US population; is the largest electricity importer in the country, and its ambitious renewable energy requirements cannot all be met within the state.

About 30% of the wind and 15% of the solar needed to meet the RES will come from outside California. Already California has whipped up a wind industry in Wyoming to meet its current RES mandates of 20% by the end of this year.

“We’re hoping the majority of the power is going to come from California resources,” says Laura Wisland, an energy analyst from the Union of Concerned Scientists. “But there’s a lot of room for projects built in other Western states.”

Slated to start in 2011, AB32 has driven clean energy investment to the state even before it took effect, with almost 40% of all clean energy investment in the US now coming to California, and the prospect of California’s AB32 legislation has been driving development in other states too.

But now, with the threat of Prop 23 killing clean energy requirements, transmission and wind projects as far away as Montana are being held up.

John Dunn, director of transmission for TransCanada, and the project manager for its Chinook line, a $3-billion, 1,100-mile transmission project connecting Montana to Nevada told Energy Prospects West that “Much of the development that has been discussed in Montana and Wyoming has been with the view that its renewables would ultimately serve the desert Southwest and California.”

Dunn estimates that just for their company alone, between the $3 billion in transmission and $6 billion in wind projects, there’s about $9 billion in investments waiting for some “certainty” from California.

Unlike the last time Big Oil in Texas attacked California – with Enron – this time, Prop 23’s victims will be strewn all over the Western US.

Image: No on Prop 23

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Tags: AB32, Big Oil, Enron, Prop 23, Valero, Vote No on Prop 23

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

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Applied Materials

Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter weighs in on AB32. http://blog.amat.com/Applied-Materials-NO-Prop-23
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http://powersmithgroup.com Robert E

Renewable Energy projects produce electricity. Electricity is not produced from foreign oil and there isn’t a shortage of electricity. The US Energy Information Agency reports electrical demand declined 3.6% last year. Furthermore, what jobs? Any PERMANENT (non construction)RE jobs will be offset by closure of conventional power plants because we don’t need the electricity. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  But there IS a shortage of electricity that doesn’t cause climate change, though. We have only 15% renewable energy in California now. And as a result of climate change there WILL be a shortage in the future of hydroelectricity, that California now depends on. I remember some years ago, the CEO of PG&E testifying before congress that this is a huge concern going ahead, because hydropower is depleted by droughts, and with warmer winters snow melt is faster, in winter, leaving none for later in the year, as we have had, a to some extent still have now. But California has seen only the first 3 degrees of climate change over the last 30 years. By the end of the century it will be ten degrees: unthinkable change- if we don’t slow the current trajectory.
http://PowerSmithGroup.com Robert E

The biggest concern about Prop 23 and oil industry behind it are people in the Renewable Energy industry who stand to lose billions of dollars in future profits if repealed.
Bill Woods

“… AB32 – that voters passed in 2006 – ”

Uh, what? Assembly Bill 32 was passed by the legislature.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  Corrected ” – that California passed in 2006 – “
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EarlRichards

The California Jobs Initiative (CJI) is an oil corporation facre and fraud. There is no connection, whatsoever, between greenhouse gas emission reduction and the loss of jobs. This notion is an insult to the intelligence of the people of California. In fact, there is job growth in the clean, renewable energy industry. Chevron employs 65,000 worldwide and CJI is not going to change this. The only jobs created by the oil industry are clean-up jobs after oil spills and deep water, blow-outs and pump-handler jobs. CJI will make fantastic profits for the oil industry, increase air pollution, especially in communities around their refineries and there will not be lower gas prices. Koch Industries, Valero and Tesoro are super Enrons. Since when did the oil companies start to show any concern for the unemployed and their families and for small businesses?