It’s difficult to overstate the economic and political impact that the United States has on North America and the rest of the world. And in turn, it’s difficult to overestimate how much effect the choices and behaviour of the state of California’s 39 million residents have on the United States.
The consequence of this is that California (whose population exceeds the entirety of Canada’s by nearly four million people) has had tremendous influence over the world energy market, efforts at finding environmentally sound ways of meeting the Earth’s energy needs, and the fates of companies and organizations that exist in the overlap between those two concerns.
California’s ability to affect the global market was aptly demonstrated only just recently.
It’s worth mentioning that the crisis that Volkswagen is currently facing due to its emissions testing fraud exploded onto the world stage largely due to investigations by the California Air Resources Board. California has had some of the most stringent air quality laws in the world for the past several decades, and these laws are largely enforced by CARB (the only state-level air quality regulatory agency in the U.S.).
When scientists at West Virginia University, working on behalf of European researchers, first discovered evidence that the real-world emissions of Volkswagen’s diesel cars weren’t in line with what emissions tests had indicated, they notified the American EPA and California’s Air Quality Board. It was CARB that responded by beginning the investigations that eventually revealed the fraud perpetrated by the European car company, which hemorrhaged more than $20 billion dollars in market value within a few days of the revelation.
And legislation passed a few days ago by California is a portent for the economic future of renewable energy throughout the world.
On October 7th, California’s governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that set a mandate for the state to generate half of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2030. The legislation is an expansion on a 2006 law passed in the state that required California to source one-third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The state is making serious headway on its original goal, as well as its new and loftier challenge. As of last year, the state generated 25% of its electricity from renewable sources, such as solar and wind farms.
In addition, the law require that existing homes and buildings become twice as energy efficient within the same span of time. It is rather telling that a third section of the law, which was torpedoed due to the efforts of oil industry lobbyists, would have required a reduction of 50% in petroleum use by cars and trucks in the state by 2030.
As we noted in a blog post a few weeks ago, the future of the energy industry is likely going to be defined by changes in both how energy is generated, and how energy is consumed. California’s attempt at addressing both of those concerns suggests that state officials and experts have been developing a detailed plan for the future.
As California goes…
As mentioned above, California’s economy has a history of exerting a great deal of influence on the United States, and by proxy, the rest of the world. With California making such a major commitment to renewable energy, despite the rest of the U.S.’s relative conservatism when it comes to green energy, it seems clear that the world is in the process of lurching another step forward along the path to fully embracing renewable energy.
