California lawmakers will go home for
the year without voting on a landmark renewable energy bill, in an
unexpected setback for the state’s efforts to lead the world in fighting
climate change.
The bill would have
required California to get 60 percent of its electricity from renewable
sources like solar and wind by 2030, up from the current legal mandate
of 50 percent. It also would have tasked state regulators with charting a
path to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045, which could have
included energy sources not considered “renewable,” like nuclear power,
large hydropower plants and gas-fired power plants that capture their
carbon emissions.
State senators approved the
legislation by a 25-13 margin in May, and for months its eventual
passage in the Assembly looked like a foregone conclusion. But the bill
got held up after unexpectedly strong opposition from investor-owned
utilities like Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas &
Electric, which argued it did not adequately protect their customers
from potential increases in electricity costs. Unions also worked to
kill the bill in the final week of session, after legislative leaders
wouldn’t include provisions sought by organized labor.
Assembly
member Chris Holden, a Pasadena Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s
utilities and energy committee, said earlier this week he wouldn’t move
the bill out of his committee because it didn’t have enough support to
pass the chamber. He held to that stance as the legislative session came
to a close Friday night, even as climate advocates urged him to advance
the bill.
The bill’s failure was a major defeat for Gov. Jerry
Brown and powerful Senate leader Kevin de León, a Los Angeles Democrat
who wrote the legislation. It was also disheartening for climate and
clean energy advocates, who have touted California as a global leader in
the fight against climate change — an especially important role now
that the Trump administration has backed out of the Paris climate
agreement and is working to undo many Obama-era climate initiatives.
