100% green electricity in California

It's been obvious for a while now that there will be a pincer movement crushing fossil fuels.  The one half of the pincer is the steady decline in the cost of renewables, storage and EVs, and the ongoing technological advances which underpin these cost declines.  The other is the ever increasing awareness of the steady rise in global temperatures. It's become impossible to deny that global warming is real.  

That pincer movement has begun.  California is likely to target 100% green electricity by 2045.  Because of rapid cost declines in renewables, it's likely to get there early.

Wind turbines lining the Altamont Pass near Livermore in 2013.
Kevin de León’s Senate Bill 100 would mandate 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045.CreditNoah Berger/Associated Press

From The New York Times:

California has been a leader in trying to counter the forces contributing to climate change, from its stringent standards for auto emissions to its mandate that 50 percent of the state’s electricity come from carbon-free sources by 2030.

Now, with climate concerns magnified by extreme summer temperatures and catastrophic wildfires, lawmakers are considering a move that would go further: a proposal to mandate 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045.

The bill’s sponsor, State Senator Kevin de León, says that with the Trump administration’s efforts to bolster electricity generated from fossil fuels, California and other states must chart their own course on energy policy. And, partly owing to recent events, he thinks the bill can pass within three weeks.

“Because of the fires, because of the extreme drought, because of the anti-environmental edicts coming from this president, there’s a huge ground swell of support,” Mr. de León said of his proposal, designated Senate Bill 100.

[Read more here]

California is the world's 5th or 6th largest economy.  It has conclusively demonstrated that strong economic growth is possible even as carbon emissions fall.  If California can do it, the rest of the world can too.  By 2045 or before, electricity generation in California will be 100% green, and so will transport.  It's a path the rest of the world will follow.