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Likely Effects of California Proposition 7
Analysis of "The Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008"
California's 2008 Proposition 7 taps into a deep vein of public awareness and concern about the growing crises of global warming, climate change, and pollution, and the urgent need to replace fossil fuels with renewables as the basis for the energy economy. Unfortunately, this measure promises to disrupt the transformation of California's energy economy by sidelining innovation and growth in decentralized renewable energy technologies. Proposition 7 is, essentially, a mandate to build industrial-scale solar power factories in remote lands, and a bonanza for a handful of contractors positioned to receive the lucrative contracts. It ignores simple reforms that would greatly accelerate the greening of urban areas with distributed micro-power generation, and creates new barriers to that transformation.
Essays
The following articles provide an in-depth look the Proposition's stated goals and its plan for meeting those goals. It examines the likelyhood that the plan will work, and its possible pitfalls, focusing on its likely effects on the emerging renewable energy economy.
- California Proposition 7: Redefining Renewable Energy to Concentrate Power
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California Proposition 7:
Taking the Green Out of Renewable Energy
Goals, Methods, and Likely Consequences of "The Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008"- The Renewables Future: Solar Rooftops or Factories and Power Lines
- The Renewable Portfolio Standard
- Fixed Feed-in Tariff
- Less Than 30 Megawatts Need Not Apply
- A Subsidy for Power Lines
- Checking Prop 7's Math: How Much Land?
- Solar Solutions: Monoculture or Diversity
- A Few Giant Players
- Conclusion
contents:
Alameda Green Party
The Alameda County Green Party, like scores of other organizations that have examined the Proposition, have concluded that Proposition 7 is not the way to move California into the renewable energy future:
back to Proposition 7