Guest opinion: California must not undermine the advance of clean energy

Mountain View Voice
By Josh Becker

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently set aside plans to vote on a controversial proposal to revise the state's rooftop solar program. That's good. This time-out gives regulators a chance to rethink their proposal and tackle what Gov. Gavin Newsom described as "still ... some work to do."

I agree there is still work to be done. California is the U.S. leader in solar energy and adds a power plant-worth of rooftop solar about every five months. As of last year, our state had 25 gigawatts (GW) of solar on the grid, with utility-scale solar accounting for 15 GW and 10 GW of distributed solar, nearly all of it from rooftop solar. To put that into perspective, 1 GW is enough to power 110 million LEDs or about 9,060 Nissan Leafs.

However, being the leader doesn't mean our work is over. Our state's current plans assume California will need as much as 208 GW from a mix of clean energy technologies to reach the goal of 100% clean electricity by 2045. We need more clean energy of every kind, and I'm working on legislation to encourage that.

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