Dr Allan Hoffman recently compared the fracking boom to the market for illegal drugs. Regardless of the problems, there is simply too much money to be made. He expects the boom to continue for several decades. Together with Professor EM Gustav Olsson, of Lund University, and Andreas Lindström, of Stockholm International Water Institute, Hoffman has just written a report entitled, “Shale Gas and Hydraulic Fracturing: Framing the Water Issue.” As the title suggests, the focus is fracking’s threat to water quality.
California’s monopoly utilities failed in what many perceive as their latest attempt to squash community choice aggregates. Assemblyman Steven Bradford could not find a senator willing to sponsor his controversial bill. So it expired when the legislature’s current session ended, at 3 am on Friday night. California Assembly Bill 2145 is dead.
Listening to the percentages, it sounds like America’s usage of green energy sources made strong gains during the first half of 2014. They supplied 10.4% more electricity than last year. Utility scale solar is up almost 116%. Renewable electricity is up 14%, but are we winning?
Governor Jerry Brown did not realize how backwards California’s solar regulations were until he visited Germany in the summer of 2013. There were 500 jurisdictions back home, each with its own requirements and charges. Some are models of efficiency. Los Angeles’ web based system can spit out an approval immediately and it only takes a day in San Diego, but there are also jurisdictions where the process drags out over the course of many weeks. As a result, the soft costs of getting a solar system in California can be eight times as they are in Germany. The Germans have a single system for the entire country. Governor Brown was impressed. So impressed that he started making inquiries about how to streamline California’s permitting process. That was how AB 2188 came into being.
Between 70% and 80% of California’s solar installations are leased from third party companies. This model has been reproduced throughout much of the US, but some Washington installers want to do something different. They believe that money raised from local taxpayers should be used to promote the growth of local solar initiatives. This puts them in opposition to large out-of-state solar leasing companies who need that funding. Will Washington buck the trend?
