State red tape trips up green energy efforts

Sacramento — As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares this week to sign into law the nation’s most ambitious effort to address global warming, a key component of California’s push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — increasing the use of renewable power to create electricity — has faltered.

Despite overwhelming public and political support for renewable power, ratepayer contributions of $319 million, and a 2002 law mandating a dramatic increase in the use of sun and wind to create megawatts, California has boosted its use of renewable energy by less than 1 percent of the state’s overall electricity use in the past four years.

In the meantime, Texas has surpassed California as the nation’s leader in wind power. PG&E, which ran television commercials in the Bay Area earlier this year promoting its environmentally friendly practices, has actually reduced the amount of renewable power in its portfolio during the past two years. And the world’s largest wind-power company — which is investing $2 billion around the country on wind projects this year and next — is not spending any of that money in California, complaining that overly complicated and time-consuming regulations are slowing development.

While the state’s major utilities argue they are on the way to a renewable energy building boom, independent analysts predict California probably will not meet a regulatory deadline — one frequently touted by Schwarzenegger — that calls for 20 percent of the state’s electricity use to be fueled by renewable power by 2010.

San Francisco Chronicle