California Climate Law an $8.6 Billion Coup for Solar Utilities
- Energy-efficiency contractors, renewables industry backed bill
- Business opposition melted after politicians lifted fuel limit
Picture taken on January 23, 2015 of the newly finished PV Salvador solar plant near El Salvador, in the Atacama desert, northern Chile.
VLADIMIR RODAS/AFP/Getty ImagesSolar and wind-power entrepreneurs will get a bigger share of California’s energy market. Construction contractors will get more work tightening the energy efficiency of buildings. And environmentalists will tiptoe closer to their goal of weaning the most-populous U.S. state from fossil fuels.
California lawmakers on Friday passed a watered-down version of what state Senate President Kevin de Leon had billed as part of the “most far-reaching effort to fight climate change in the history of our nation.” Before lawmakers stripped out provisions including a 50 percent rollback in gasoline use, de Leon’s bill had drawn opposition from building owners, the oil industry, retailers and even fruit and vegetable growers.