My perception is that those countries that have met their Kyoto goals are the exception, not the rule. Many countries, it seems to me, simply announce that they aren't going to meet the goals and then go on to talking about North Korea, or Iraq, or Iran, or Brittany's baby.
I'm not really up on what Southern California Edison and what they're doing. I was a customer of their's a long time ago, twenty years or so ago. My recollection is that they were having a "huge push" toward renewables back then too.
There was a lot of talk for instance about the success of the Geysers project, which has been operating since 1960. There's still a lot of talk about the Geysers project, which is a shame, since one should be able to speak of many more such projects after 46 years.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/geothermal/overview.htmlFrankly, I'll believe it when I see it. California
does have huge Geothermal potential, but the fact is that Mexicali, Mexico is producing far more geothermal energy than the Salton Sea area, for instance. Something is rotten in Denmark.
I don't mean to be contrary - well, maybe I do - but I'll believe the renewables case when I see it. Almost all of California's new capacity for the last decades has been natural gas capacity. Natural gas is
not greenhouse gas minimized energy. Renewables
have grown in California, but not at the rate at which fossil fuel use has been growing.
Nationally - not specifically California - this trend is easy to see by looking at the new capacity announced for the US as a whole:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epaxlfile2_5.xlsIt's mostly gas and coal, even though gas and coal are
killing us. It would be even
more stark if one were to recognize that the "name plate capacities" listed refer, in many cases to
intermittent renewables.
It seems all of this talk from Arnold is strictly electioneering. As soon as the election is over, it's back to business as usual. My opinion is that the "renewables push" is what people
want to hear. The election cycle is
precisely the time that this sort of "want to hear" stuff goes on. What people are
promised is seldom what they actually see.
With all due respect to the state of California, there have been a lot of
unfulfilled promises in that state, going back decades. (Personally I cut my teeth on being cynical about the grand renewable future - in which I once believed - in California, starting back in the 1970's.) It seems to me that many of the solar thermal plants, wind plants, and other such systems are primarily designed to get people not to focus on the new gas capacity being built. It is true that California is doing
better on the renewable score than most of the United States, but that isn't saying much.
The fact is that keeping Schwarzenegger where he is is a particularly bad idea. He's pandering and he is, like his entire party, a dishonest practitioner of the "bait and switch" philosophy.
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