This week, California lawmakers revived Senator Kevin de León’s 2017 bill that sets the goal of a 100 percent clean energy supply in the state by 2045.
SB 100 would also ramp up California’s renewable portfolio standard from 50 to 60 percent by the year 2030.
Supporters say this bill is crucial to addressing climate change by eliminating the state’s reliance on carbon energy sources. Critics, which include business and utility voices, say that this plan will hike up prices for consumers and nix the fossil fuel industry prematurely.
We discuss the pros and cons of the legislation.
Guests:
Ralph Cavanagh, senior attorney for the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the NRDC, where he focuses on the power sector; he is based in San Francisco
Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in business and economics at Pacific Research Institute; a San Francisco-based nonprofit think tank focused on free-market policy advocacy