California is striking a blow against global warming. Who will follow next?
SB 100 is the real deal
How can you tell when an action to fight climate change is the real deal?
You can start by asking three questions: Does it help to get us off of fossil fuels — quickly and completely? Does it fuel the development of the clean energy technologies and practices of tomorrow? And does it demonstrate leadership and commitment, inspiring others to follow?
It is rare that any single action checks all three of those boxes. But California’s adoption of Senate Bill 100 is just such an achievement.
Senate Bill 100 commits the state of California to obtain 60 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, by 2030. And it sets a goal of obtaining 100 percent of the state’s electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045.
In a little more than a generation, the world’s fifth-biggest economy will obtain its electricity without the carbon pollution that threatens the future of our planet. That is a big deal.
And it isn’t an exercise in wishful thinking. California has a sterling record of setting seemingly ambitious targets for cleaning up its electricity system — and then beating them. Four times since 2002, California has set renewable energy targets. And all four times, the Golden State has put itself on track to exceed those goals.
Fifteen years ago, for example, California pledged to draw 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2017. California smashed that goal, getting nearly a third of its electricity from renewable sources last year.
To hit the goal of 100 percent clean energy, California is going to need to develop and implement the clean energy technologies of tomorrow. The passage of SB 100 will help achieve that as well.
California’s history of strong clean energy policies has made the Golden State a global center of clean energy innovation. The state currently attracts more than half (57 percent) of all clean energy venture capital investment in the U.S., and generates nearly three times as many patents for clean energy technology as the next leading state. By setting an ambitious goal for clean electricity, SB 100 represents an all-points bulletin to clean energy innovators and entrepreneurs, making it far more likely that the clean energy technologies of tomorrow will be developed and tested in California.
California can’t solve climate change on its own. So, the greatest impact of SB 100 might be the message it sends around the country and around the world.
By committing to 100 percent clean electricity, California is pushing all of its chips to the center of the table in a big bet on clean energy. Visionaries, experts and political leaders have talked for years about what a zero-carbon electricity system might look like and whether it is even possible. California’s message to them is as follows: “Watch us. Let us show you how it’s done.”
California’s ambition and confidence will surely make an impression on the 15 states whose governors — from Republicans like Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to Democrats such as Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper — have joined California Gov. Jerry Brown in committing to uphold the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Each of those states has sufficient renewable energy resources to meet its electricity needs, often several times over. California’s bold action will shift the conversation in all of those states as to what is technologically, economically and politically possible.
It will also change the global conversation. President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement was a serious setback at a time when the world finally seemed to be coalescing around an approach to addressing climate change. Why, world leaders might ask, should they commit to cutting their own emissions if the world’s second-leading carbon polluter, the United States, has left the field?
California’s bold action sends a message to Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping and other world leaders that America’s progress toward clean energy will continue — Donald Trump or no Donald Trump. If the federal government won’t lead, states will.
At a time when much of the news about climate change is bad, California’s bold, new clean energy commitment is a breath of fresh air. And it could be a critical turning point in the fight against global warming.
