An annual report on California’s progress decarbonizing its economy is out today and, as usual, the news is largely good. The United States’s most populous state and the world’s eighth-largest economy has made huge investments in energy efficiency, green building and alternative sources of electricity and transportation. It’s paying off. And while the Flat Earth Society continues to dominate the climate-change debate in Washington, the West Coast political and business establishment is largely unified in facing an increasingly grim reality head-on.
Consumer demand for California’s clean technology sector products and services is expanding, according to data in a new report from the group Next 10. But it’s not necessarily translating into jobs in the Central Valley. “Clean economy employment in the Central Coast, the Sierra Region, the Sacramento Valley, and the San Joaquin Valley declined overall, but each region also saw employment increase in multiple segments,” the report says. It is the largest regional decrease.
Forward-looking policies in California, according to Next 10, result in technological innovation, increasing consumer demand. That leads to even more technology and further demand. “As consumers learn more about cost-effective new technologies, demand rises for products that save energy and dollars at home, on our highways, and at work,” said F. Noel Perry, businessman and founder of Next 10.
The report finds California's clean technology sector is growing at a faster rate than the rest of the economy. The state's green friendly policies get a lot of credit for creating an environment that encourages innovation.
San Diego gets good marks in the latest assessment of the state’s green economy. The nonpartisan group Next 10 is out with its annual Green Innovation Index, KPBS reports.
The Green Innovation Index shows statewide registrations of alternative fuel vehicles rising 16% from 2011 to 2012, at a time when all California vehicle registrations increased by only 1.5%.
The Concord Coalition and Next 10, both of which are nonpartisan groups advocating for balanced budgets, first teamed up to create the online tool in 2009, and they have updated the program each year with the most recent policy proposals. Overall, the tool highlights some of the difficult choices that have divided Democrats and Republicans in recent years, while also gives users a chance to weigh what programs are most important to them.
