California Proposition 7, would have required California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025. In order to make that goal, levels of production of solar, wind and other renewable energy resources would more than quadruple from their current[ when? ] output of 10.9%. [1] It would also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2% annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements of 40% in 2020 and 50% in 2025. Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20% by 2010.
The 42 page measure, 7 pages of which is new law, is an initiated state statute that had qualified for the November 2008 ballot in California, [2] and was disapproved by voters on November 4 of that year.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
The California Legislative Analyst's Office, the nonpartisan state agency charged with providing a neutral estimate about the fiscal impact on the state of ballot initiatives and state legislative bills, has arrived at the following summary of Prop. 7's estimated costs:
The official committee supporting Prop 7 is called Californians for Solar and Clean Energy.
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike.
For the full list of supporters, see: List of Proposition 7 supporters
The primary financial backer of the initiative is Peter Sperling.
Peter V. Sperling is one of the 400 wealthiest Americans, and the son of John Sperling. He is the Chairman of Apollo Group, and a co-founder and Chairman of CallWave, Inc. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and his MBA from the University of Phoenix.
As of September 18, two donors have contributed $5,000 or more to support Prop. 7. They are:
Jim Gonzalez, founding partner of the political consulting firm Jim Gonzalez & Associates in Sacramento, is the initiative's chief spokesperson. [6]
The official committee opposing Prop. 7 is called Californians Against Another Costly Energy Scheme.
See also: List of Proposition 7 opponents.
As of August 2, three donors are listed as having given $5,000 or more to defeat this initiative. [11] They are:
The opposition coalition as of July 14, 2008 had paid about $175,000 to the campaign consulting firm of Townsend, Raimundo, Besler & Usher. [15]
A poll released on July 22, 2008 by Field Poll showed Proposition 7 with 63% support and 24% opposition. 82% of those surveyed had no initial awareness of Proposition 7. [16]
Month of Poll | In Favor | Opposed | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|
July 2008 | 63 percent | 24 percent | 13 percent |
The petition drive to qualify the measure for the ballot was conducted by Progressive Campaigns, Inc. at a cost of $1.367 million. [24]
Supporters and opponents of Proposition 7 filed lawsuits in Sacramento Superior Court regarding the wording of ballot arguments that voters will see in the official voter's guide. [25]
The lawsuit filed by proponents of Proposition 7 claimed that the opposition’s ballot arguments contained false and misleading statements that should have been deleted. Specifically, proponents sued over the opponents' claim that small renewable providers would be shut out of the market. Noting that there is no language in the measure that states that, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny refused to take sides on the issue. [26]
The lawsuit filed by opponents of Proposition 7 wanted the removal of three statements in the voter's guide:
The opponent's petition was denied in its entirety, with Judge Kenny stating that the opponents had not sufficiently established that those statements were misleading.
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The campaign against Proposition 7 has drawn questions about the ties between Pacific Gas & Electric, Sempra, and Southern Cal Edison, and the main environmental groups that have come out against the measure. Articles from the late nineties and 2000-2001 linking the Natural Resources Defense Council to the passage of electricity deregulation, leading to the energy crisis over which Governor Gray Davis was recalled, have resurfaced, leading some to question the veracity of the environmental opposition., . Still more question the independence of groups like the CA League of Conservation Voters (CLVC), the Sierra Club, and Acterra, which have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from either the utilities funding the No on Prop 7 campaign or other major energy companies, and have overlapping board memberships with the utilities.
Opponents to Proposition 7 deflect the charge of greenwashing by pointing to the California Green Party's opposition.
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
8,155,181 | 64.43 | |
Yes | 4,502,235 | 35.57 |
Valid votes | 12,657,416 | 92.10 |
Invalid or blank votes | 1,085,761 | 7.90 |
Total votes | 13,743,177 | 100.00 |
Municipalization is the transfer of corporations or other assets to municipal ownership. The transfer may be from private ownership or from other levels of government. It is the opposite of privatization and is different from nationalization. The term municipalization largely refers to the transfer of ownership of utilities from Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to public ownership, and operation, by local government whether that be at the city, county or state level. While this is most often applied to electricity it can also refer to solar energy, water, sewer, trash, natural gas or other services.
California Proposition 80 was a proposition on the ballot for California voters in a special election to be held November 8, 2005. Of the eight propositions on the ballot, all of which failed, Proposition 80 failed by the largest margin, with 2,580,536 (34.4%) yes votes and 4,920,679 (65.6%) no votes.
Sempra Energy is a North American energy infrastructure company based in San Diego, California. Sempra Energy's focus is on electric and natural gas infrastructure. Its operating companies include: Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) in Southern California; Oncor Electric Delivery Company (Oncor) in Texas; Sempra LNG & Midstream; and IEnova, based in Mexico.
A Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. The federal RPS is called the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).
Community Choice Aggregation, abbreviated CCA, also known as Community Choice Energy (CCE), municipal aggregation, governmental aggregation, electricity aggregation, and community aggregation, is an alternative to the investor owned utility energy supply system in which local entities in the United States aggregate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts. The CCA chooses the power generation source on behalf of the consumers. By aggregating purchasing power, they are able to create large contracts with generators, something individual buyers may be unable to do. The main goals of CCAs have been to either lower costs for consumers or to allow consumers greater control of their energy mix, mainly by offering "greener" generation portfolios than local utilities. Currently CCAs are possible in the United States states of Massachusetts, Ohio, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, and serve nearly 5% of Americans in over 1300 municipalities as of 2014.
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