Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats who control the Legislature have plenty to disagree about. So it's a shame they can't even get together on an important issue on which they say they agree.
California has long been a leader in pushing the electricity industry to use renewable sources of energy to power the state's grid. Current law calls for the utilities to use renewables for 20 percent of their electricity production by 2010.
The industry is falling short of that benchmark, but Schwarzenegger and the Legislature's Democratic leaders say they want to go even further. In exchange for delaying the 20 percent standard until 2013, they would require that 33 percent of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.
The problem is, they can't agree on how to get there. The governor last week vetoed legislation that would have put the new standard into law. Instead, he has ordered the Air Resources Board to implement the idea with regulations as part of the board's plan to fight global warming.
That's a step in the right direction, but it's not sufficient. Anything this air board does can be undone by a future board, whose appointees will be controlled by the next governor. Already, one Republican candidate, businesswoman Meg Whitman, has said she would suspend implementation of the global warming law because she thinks it is hurting the economy.
But this kind of uncertainty will hurt the economy more than just about anything. Companies that are ready and willing to invest in green energy – solar power, windmills, geothermal – will hesitate if they think the state is not serious about its commitment. Just when California should be reaping the benefits of its environmental ethos, we will be sitting on the sidelines instead.
The dispute between Schwarzenegger and the Democrats boils down to a couple of issues. First, the Democrats are trying to use the new law to steer as many renewable power projects as possible into California, in part at the behest of labor unions whose members would build and operate the plants. The governor is right to object to these moves and insist that the law allow the reasonable importation of renewable energy as part of a western region initiative that would keep costs down.
The Democrats also are trying to erect new regulatory hurdles in the way of the very projects they say they want to see built in California. But California already has the toughest environmental permitting laws in the nation. Does the state really need more layers of review for projects that, ultimately, would be helping the environment?
Schwarzenegger made his objections clear while these bills still were in the Legislature. The Democrats decided to test his resolve by calling his bluff. Now they know: he is willing to veto even a bill he wants to sign if his concerns are not addressed before lawmakers send the measure to his desk.
It's time for both sides to sit down and work out their fairly narrow differences so their mutual goal can become a reality. If they fail to do so, they'll put at risk an industry that could and should be part of the economic resurgence California so badly needs.
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