California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, on May 2 introduced Senate Bill 100, the California Clean Energy Act of 2017, which puts the state on the path to 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2045.

“California’s experience over the last decade offers hard evidence that we can dramatically expand clean energy while also growing our economy and putting people to work,” Senator de León said at a press conference. “This measure will ensure that California remains the world’s clean energy superpower and that we lead the nation in addressing the threat of climate change.”

BILL SUMMARY

SB 100, the California Clean Energy Act of 2017 does all of the following:

1. Establishes an overall state target of 100% clean energy for California by 2045 by directing the CA Public Utilities Commission, CA Energy Commission, and Air Resources Board to adopt policies and requirements to achieve total reliance on renewable energy and zero carbon resources by that date.
2. Accelerates SB 350’s 50 percent mandate for clean renewable energy from 2030 to 2026 and establishes a new RPS benchmark of 60 percent by 2030  to ensure more clean energy in the California grid sooner.
3. Establishes new policies for energy companies to capture uncontrolled methane emissions from dairies, landfills and waste water treatment plants and use these clean renewable fuels to replace natural gas.
4. Authorizes investor owned utilities to invest in cleaner transportation fuels such as hydrogen or waste methane gas from dairies for heavy duty trucks to replace dirty diesel fuels, provided there are no other cleaner options such as zero emission vehicles available.

 BACKGROUND

California has one of the cleanest economies in the world. Since it passed AB 32 in 2006, its grown our economy faster than the national average while reducing carbon intensity by nearly 40 percent compared to 1990. It has also lowered energy bills, improved air quality and created thousands of new, high wage jobs in the clean energy sector.

California already has the most ambitious climate targets in the world and the most aggressive renewable energy targets of any economy of its size. It leads the nation in renewable energy generation, clean tech venture capital investment, patent creation and clean car technology.

In 2015, The Legislature passed SB 350, The Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act (De Leon et al), which set a 50 percent clean energy standard by 2030.That bill also set new requirements for doubling energy efficiency and for wide scale transportation electrification deployment. Senate Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2016 (Pavley), requires the state to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030.