California’s economy is world’s second greenest
sfgate.com / 5-17-15
California not only leads the nation in the fight against climate change — in some ways it leads the world.
The Golden State has the world’s second least carbon-intensive economy, according to a new study from public policy group Next 10. Only France, with its large fleet of nuclear power plants, emits fewer greenhouse gases for each dollar (or euro) of economic activity.
California has more electric cars than any other state or country, leads the world in clean-technology investment and boasts a fast-growing fleet of renewable power plants.
And according to the report, the state’s economy has continued to grow as its emissions have shrunk. From 1990 through 2012, California’s greenhouse gas emissions shrank by 25 percent per person — largely the result of more efficient homes, appliances and cars — while per capita gross domestic product rose 37 percent.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/California-s-economy-is-world-s-second-6268170.php
Normally I'm not one to boast, but I will here.
Much of the credit, according to the sources quoted in the link, goes to California policies that emphasize energy efficiency and boost renewable power.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE, NOT CORPORATIONS, DECIDE POLICY.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and a great start.
Green Power Defined
Renewable energy and green power — what's the difference?
In short, not all sources of power generation have the same environmental benefits and costs.
Green power is a subset of renewable energy (Graph 1) and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for avoided environmental impacts and its greenhouse gas reduction benefits.
Chart showing that green power is subset of renewable energy and that green power represents those renewable resources that provide the highest environmental benefit. Green power includes solar, wind, biomass, biogas, low-impact hydro, and geothermal.
Green power sources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conventional power technologies and produce no fossil-fuel based greenhouse gas emissions. EPA requires that green power sources must also have been built within the last 15 years in order to support "new" renewable energy development.
Renewable energy includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish. Such fuel sources include the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (eligible biomass), and the earth's heat (geothermal). Although the impacts are small, some renewable energy technologies have an impact on the environment. For example, large hydroelectric resources can have environmental trade-offs associated with issues such as fisheries and land use.
Conventional power includes the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and the nuclear fission of uranium. Fossil fuels have environmental costs from mining, drilling, or extraction, and emit greenhouse gases and air pollution during combustion. Although nuclear power generation emits no greenhouse gases during power generation, it does require mining, extraction, and long-term radioactive waste storage.
