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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1953)	8/27/2005 11:09:47 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24213

Assembly panel OKs solar bill Program to fund 1 million rooftops that produce energy Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, August 26, 2005 Sacramento -- The centerpiece of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious green energy program passed a key legislative committee Thursday, after taking 10 amendments to overcome opposition from various interest groups. The bill's passage out of the Assembly appropriations committee means it will be voted on by the full lower house before the end of the legislative session in two weeks. The measure won easy approval in the state Senate earlier this year but encountered opposition in the Assembly from unions, business representatives, home builders, utility companies and consumer groups. A key question now will be whether Schwarzenegger will still support the measure with the changes, which include a union-backed provision requiring contractors to pay prevailing wages to workers on nonresidential developments. That change led all Republicans to withdraw their support for the measure, and it passed out of the committee on a party-line vote. The same issue undermined a bill containing the same proposal backed by the governor last year. Schwarzenegger's energy secretary, Joe Desmond, did not return calls seeking comment. Dubbed the Million Solar Roofs Initiative, the plan is a 10-year, $2.5 billion effort to expand solar panels to a million residential and commercial roofs in California, taking advantage of the state's legendary sunshine to spark demand for technology that would produce clean power. It would be paid for by rate increases on utility customers throughout California, at an annual cost of about $15 per consumer. The money raised from the rate increases would then be used to subsidize solar panel purchase, installation and operation for residential and commercial property owners. The typical residential system costs about $27,000, and purchasers would receive a rebate of about $10,000. Currently, only about 93 megawatts of power can be generated through solar panel systems in California. The governor's proposal would raise that number to 3,000. A megawatt is enough to power between 750 and 1,000 homes. Consumer groups had previously opposed the plan because solar panels are essentially available only to the wealthier residents, and moderate-income people would be required to help pay for them. But earlier amendments eased those concerns by exempting low-income consumers from subsidizing the program. Other amendments to the bill Thursday scaled back a previous union demand that only the highest grade of licensed electricians could install the systems and limited the degree to which investor-owned utilities could participate in the program. The prevailing wage amendment was the one that rankled Republicans most. State Sen. John Campbell, R-Irvine, who had been a co-author of the bill, issued an angry statement Thursday calling the amendment a "hostile union takeover" of the bill that would increase its costs by 30 percent. Prevailing wage levels are set by the state to ensure that laws requiring contracts to go to the lowest bidder don't result in depressed pay rates. "The whole point of this bill was to create incentives for a technology that is currently too expensive so that over time it will become cost- competitive," Campbell said in a prepared statement. "Now, the unions will be artificially increasing the cost of the already too expensive technology in order to line their own pockets." Still, environmentalists remained supportive. "At the end of the day, this is the biggest solar power bill in the nation," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, an energy advocate with Environment California. E-mail Christian Berthelsen at cberthelsen@sfchronicle.com. sfgate.com