Cali Inspires with Ambitious Goals

California again leads the way again with clean energy goals that understand the urgency and come with a welcome dose of ambition.

"The roadmap (new BASE 2020 Roadmap Report for California) finds that local clean energy, including 4,000 megawatts of solar PV, and a focus on zero net energy buildings could slash greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by more than 60% by 2020," according to Forbes.

That's fantastic.  Usually plans or studies have a much longer time frame and much smaller emission reduction, like 'we recommend 30% reduction by 2050'.

It is consistently vexing in the face of climate change urgency.  This is not a future problem, this is a right now challenge. 

I'm sure critics might call it unrealistic but I say it's about time.  The planet needs more of this kind of aspiration and ambition.  BASE 2020 rocks.

The plan hits all cylinders including solar, energy efficiency,wind, geothermal, and feed-in tariffs.  Feed-in tariffs -- guaranteed, fair market prices for any excess electricity that citizens sell back to the grid -- have been key to helping Germany achieve high renewable rates.  People also criticized Germany for being overly ambitious.

Refreshing optimism comes from people involved like Cisco DeVries.  “We got our start fighting things. Saying no. Now, we’re fighting for what we think is the yes. That is a remarkable transformation,” he said in Forbes.

Download and read the summary and the full report by Pacific Environment here.

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