Posts Tagged: clean

Opinion

Community clean energy greatly helps those left behind

Solar panels clustered in an urban environment to provide energy to surrounding buildings, homes. (Photo: Gengwit Wattakawigran. via Shutterstock)

OPINION: All Californians have the right to access affordable clean energy. However, the majority of Californians are unable to take advantage of solar energy generated at their home because they are renters or homeowners without a suitable roof. These significant barriers are not adequately addressed through California’s existing clean energy programs.

Opinion

More work needed on state’s drinking water crisis

A sign urging protections for drinking water in Yosemite National Park. (Photo: Earl D. Walker, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: California has a drinking water crisis. More than 1 million people in California lack access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water. 400 schools in our state have lead contamination in their drinking water. About 300 public water systems in our state are not in compliance with drinking water standards. This is a public health and environmental crisis.

Opinion

Renewable gas really is too good to be true

A station providing renewable natural gas in Southern California. (Photo: Southern California Gas Co.)

As California ramps up efforts to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide, one polluting industry, in particular, is fighting to maintain relevance.

In the face of local governments, state regulators, health professionals, and environmental groups calling for clean energy homes and buildings that can be powered with renewable electricity instead

News

When it comes to California water, nothing is easy

O'Shaughnessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the source of water for San Francisco. (Photo: Gary Saxe. via Shutterstock)

Camrosa Water District, a public services provider in Ventura County, gets its water from a combination of groundwater, recycled wastewater, and the State Water Project, which transports water south through the state. Twenty miles away, another mid-size public water agency also founded around 1960 has a very different portfolio: Las Virgenes Municipal Water District gets virtually all its water from the State Water Project, which is managed by California’s Department of Water Resources.

Opinion

Clean electricity demands true collaboration

High-voltage power lines at sunset. (Photo: Ron Kacmarcik, via Shutterstocfk)

OPINION: California is on the verge of joining Hawaii in setting the bold but achievable goal of getting to 100 percent clean electricity in just one generation. Other neighboring states are also developing very ambitious goals to double or even triple the amount of renewable energy they will generate over the next decade.

Opinion

Clean energy crucial for California

Windmills at sunset in the California desert. (Photo: Angie Agostino)

OPINION: Look around lately and it’s hard to ignore evidence of chaos fueled by our changing climate. From the barrage of hurricanes in the Atlantic to the raging wildfires and heat waves throughout the West, climate change is here already and it refuses to be ignored. In the last week, everyone from Miami’s Republican mayor to Pope Francis has affirmed the need for swift action.

Opinion

Cap-and-trade key to green energy future

Windmills generate electricity in Palm Springs. (Photo: Chris Rubino)

OPINION: Clean energy is taking over the world, driven by a combination of climate change policies and market economics. California has paced America in seizing this opportunity, building a thriving green economy through smart policy. But the fate of California’s cap-and-trade program, a cornerstone of the state’s green growth strategy, depends on the state Legislature extending the program beyond 2020

Opinion

LCFS: A crucial tool to fight climate change

California motorists in a traffic jam. (Photo: Shutterstock)

OPINION: Just as the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires electric utilities to phase in a specific amount of clean energy in our electricity mix, the LCFS mandates that the oil industry phase in cleaner fuels to tackle the state’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions: the fuel that runs our cars, trucks, and buses.

Opinion

Sentencing reform and redemption, California style

An early prison cell, an inmate's home for years. (Photo: Straight 8 Photography)

OPINION: Jerry Brown’s push for sentencing reform is the latest great example of Brown doing what most experts and practitioners know to be the right thing—and the willingness of an aging and experienced governor to learn from and correct his mistakes.

Opinion

California’s clean energy is no accident

An electrical engineer at a solar power plant in California. (Photo: BikerideLondon, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: When it comes to climate change, France leads by example. It is the least carbon-intensive major economy in the world. No developed nation emits less carbon per dollar of goods and services produced. But what might surprise many, around the world and here at home, is that the world’s second-least-carbon-intensive economy is here in the United States. Worldwide, when it comes to carbon intensity—to producing more while polluting less—California is second only to France.

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