Governor Issues Executive Order, State and Federal Agencies Sign MOU To Meet 33% by 2020 Goal
Sacramento – Using a solar manufacturing facility as backdrop, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and heads of multiple state and federal agencies gathered today to unveil plans to improve the process through which large-scale renewable energy projects are cited and built in California.
Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order signed today is designed to create better coordination between the California Energy Commission and other state agencies that play a role in the citing or permitting of renewable energy projects such as Department of Fish and Game and the California Public Utilities Commission.
In addition to the Executive Order, the Memorandum of Understanding, signed today by the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), the California Energy Commission (CEC) the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is designed to create better cooperation between state and federal agencies which critics say has been largely missing and has hampered the development of renewable energy projects such as large-scale solar power plants in the desert.
“We applaud Gov. Schwarzenegger’s continued leadership on renewable energy,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate for Environment California. “Bringing all the relevant state and federal agencies together to build clean, renewable energy is critical to meeting California’s global warming goals and to leading the rest of the country to a clean energy future.”
The Executive Order signed today focuses on setting up communications and decision-making processes designed to help streamline the siting, permitting and procurement of renewable energy developments, such as wind farms, geothermal or large solar power plants. For any given renewable energy project, multiple agencies with various jurisdictions and regulatory procedures can greatly impede a renewable energy developer from advancing to the construction and ultimately energy generation phase.
“This is not about removing proper environmental oversight of proposed renewable energy projects,” said Del Chiaro. “It is simply about creating a more effective decision making process so that the most environmentally friendly projects get built, and the least environmentally friendly projects get nixed.”
The Executive Order cites that more than 6,300 MW of renewable energy projects have been approved by the Public Utilities Commission over the past few years, yet few have been built for various reasons including transmission access, siting holdups, and financing issues. In addition to the Executive Order, the MOU between state and federal agencies is designed to also help focus renewable energy developments in the most sound, ecologically sensitive manner while allowing the best projects to be built.
“We have to build renewable energy projects and we have to do so responsibly,” concluded Del Chiaro. “At the end of the day, global warming and the planet-wide impact of climate change must be stopped and renewable energy is a key solution.”
California has set the goal of reaching 33% renewable electricity by 2020. However, attempts to establish this mandate through legislation has fallen short several legislative sessions in a row. Environmental groups called on the legislature and the governor to work together to pass a 33% by 2020 Renewable Portfolio Standard law.
“If we are to solve global warming, we have to advance on all fronts – build renewable energy projects, increasing energy efficiency and pass the laws and regulations that will enable the state to lead the country toward clean energy solutions,” said Del Chiaro.
