Climate Change

Consumers got a nice gift this holiday season in the form of low per-gallon gas prices, at least in relation to where we were a year ago. This last year featured a wild ride in which gas prices nationally went up 50 cents per gallon between November 2013 and June 2014, and then tumbled more than a dollar in time for the new year. A question for 2015 is whether we can continue to count on lower prices. The answer is highly uncertain, since the primary drivers of price fluctuations, such as global demand and production decisions by oil interests, are out of our control.
 

California is moving toward its goal of generating a third of its electrical power from solar, wind and other renewable sources by 2020, as promised five years ago by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 

An overwhelming majority of the American public, including half of Republicans, support government action to curb global warming, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times, Stanford University and the nonpartisan environmental research group Resources for the Future.
 

We worry a lot about the problem of climate change. And we try to fix it — again, again and again — by changing how the country uses energy.

What we don’t stop and ponder enough, though, is that the country is changing how it uses energy. It’s certainly not enough to silence all environmental concerns. But nonetheless, the progress, when you sample it, is really impressive.

The Western States Petroleum Association poured nearly $8.9 million into lobbying California government in 2014, according to new filings with the Secretary of State. That compares with almost $4.7 million the group spent on the effort in 2013.

According to a study by the investment banking firm Lazard, the cost of utility-scale solar energy is as low as 5.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind is as low as 1.4 cents. In comparison, natural gas comes at 6.1 cents a kilowatt-hour on the low end and coal at 6.6 cents. Without subsidies, the firm’s analysis shows, solar costs about 7.2 cents a kilowatt-hour at the low end, with wind at 3.7 cents.

Back in 2006, SolarCity was a small Bay Area solar energy startup with a handful of employees. Before long, according to CEO Lyndon Rive, the company was doubling in size every year to keep up with voracious demand for rooftop solar systems. Today, the company has over 9,000 employees spread across 65 offices nationwide; they're are busy every day designing, selling, and installing solar systems.

State lawmakers are preparing a sweeping package of bills that would fulfill several of Gov. Jerry Brown's climate change objectives by increasing California's reliance on renewable energy and alternative transportation fuels.

The proposals would also require state pension funds, the two largest public systems in the country, to divest from coal companies. And they would create an advisory committee aimed at turning energy policies into new jobs.

Worldwide, close to 1 billion people live in poverty on less than $1.25 per day and more than 800 million are undernourished. Many of them are on the front lines of climate change. Extreme weather and droughts can put their food and water supplies at risk, raise prices, and destroy homes and businesses that are often built at the edges of livable land. They have little resilience to the volatility or economic havoc climate change can bring.

Many people have probably heard that it's getting cheaper to install rooftop solar panels in the US. But that's just part of an even bigger trend. Since 2010, the cost of renewable energy has been plummeting all over the world.