NEVADA COUNTY
CLIMATE ACTION NOW
U.S. and California Renewable Energy Goals
Climate Action Now is working for the creation of 100% Clean and Renewable plans for the cities and county of Nevada County
California
Governor Brown has issued Executive Order B-30-15: A new interim statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 is established in order to ensure California meets its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. All state agencies with jurisdiction over sources of greenhouse gas emissions shall implement measures, pursuant to statutory authority, to achieve reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to meet the 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.
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Nevada County
Nevada City has an Energy Action Plan that, if all the actions are implemented, would reduce electrical energy used in 2020 by 28% and natural gas use by 10%, and would meet a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) of 33% renewable energy by 2020.
Grass Valley has an Energy Action Plan that is projected to save 36% electricity costs by 2035. Previuos projects save nearly $7 million in energy costs as a result of solar and energy efficiency upgrades across 14 City facilities.
Truckee Town Council adopted a resolution to move to 100 percent clean electricity town-wide by 2030, as well as all energy sources by 2050. Truckee Donner PUD, to comply with the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) program, shall procure renewable energy resources of at least 33% of retail sales in 2021 and thereafter.
Nevada County has a 2018 Energy Action Plan that states: “The Nevada County Energy Action Plan (EAP) provides an analysis of the energy use within the unincorporated county limits by the community and County operated facilities as well as a roadmap for accelerating energy efficiency, water efficiency, and renewable energy efforts already underway in Nevada County. It is designed to assist the County in implementing the energy and water-energy related goals and policies in the County's General Plan and Housing Element, and inform the community of cost-effective programs and best practices that will help them save energy and money.
United States
Senator Merkley has submitted a bill to Congress that lays out what will be needed to stop climate change and global warming.
Governor Brown signed California SB 100!
SB 100 accelerates the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) obligations for retail sellers – investor-owned utilities (IOUs), community choice aggregators (CCAs), energy service providers (ESPs) and publicly-owned utilities (POUs) to provide clean electricity: 44% by 2024, 52% by 2027, 60% by 2030, and 100% of all retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers no later than December 31, 2045. This policy shall not increase carbon emissions elsewhere in the western grid and shall not allow resource shuffling to other states.
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a regulatory mandate to increase production of energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass and other alternatives to fossil and nuclear electric generation. It's also known as a renewable electricity standard.
This bill may be considered as two parts: one part increases the RPS obligations (60% by 2030) while the other part addresses the remaining electricity procurement (40%) after the RPS. For the second part, this bill establishes a new policy which plans for all electricity by December 31, 2045 to be from a mix of both RPS-eligible and zero-carbon resources, the "100 percent policy."
SB 100 commits the state to clean electricity by 2045, but electricity only accounts for about 16 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Governor Brown Issues Executive Order B-55-18
Brown’s executive order B-55-18 commits the state to doing something about the other 84 percent — transportation, building heating and cooling, industry, all the many and varied energy services that rely on direct fossil fuel combustion rather than electricity.
It sets a new statewide goal to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible, and no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net negative emissions thereafter (remove more greenhouse gas from the atmosphere than it puts in).
Executive orders are not durable or binding on their own. State agencies can research, develop road maps, and recommend policy, but to make it real, the legislature will have to pass a laws that will occasion a long and bloody political battle.
Carbon neutrality will require a great deal of the oil industry, which fought Brown tooth and nail for years. It will also probably require grid regionalization. Carbon neutrality will only be as strong as policymakers make it.
Carbon neutrality
Carbon neutrality is net zero carbon rather than zero carbon. The target is not to eliminate all carbon emissions, but to eliminate as many as possible and balance the rest with “negative emissions” — i.e., removing CO2 from the atmosphere.