California Democrats have not been shy to express their enthusiasm about switching to green energy. Initiatives boasting 100 percent renewable energy within the next 20 years seem too good to be true, because they are, but they’re precisely the type of bills being pushed through the State Legislature.
Recent PG&E fire failures certainly put the feasibility of transitioning our grid to sustainable energy into question, especially when we want to see progress happen so soon. It suffices to say that our legislators need to be educated on the reality of our situation, but all signs point to no on that matter.
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher held a forum with California Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin De Léon on the “Hidden Cost of San Diego’s Housing and Transportation Crisis.” Though the forum’s primary focus was air pollution and its effects on lower-income communities, the conversation drifted away from the topic and focused more on clean energy transition policy being a catalyst for solving these other problems.
Léon brought up his two clean energy transition bills—SB100 and SB350—into the discussion, and was vocal about his hopes to transition California to 100 percent renewable power by 2045. When questioned on whether or not current technology was advanced enough to take these steps, he admitted “I don’t know how we’ll get there…but I believe we’ll get there.”
He argued that taking steps toward a renewable future would create innovation allowing for such progress, but neglected to realize that the opposite was far truer: without existing innovation, initiatives for a green future can’t come to fruition.
Fletcher mentioned his own bold goals towards changing the way San Diego views transport. He demanded better rebates for electric vehicles to increase ownership in lower-income communities, despite the fact that individuals in such communities would be financially unable to maintain expensive electric vehicles.
Though California’s public transport improvements have been laughable in the past, Fletcher still pushed for more doomed-to-fail initiatives. After all, in his own words: “Disney already has a monorail,” so why don’t we?
The forum gave citizens a better glimpse into what goes on in the heads of legislators, but unfortunately, it isn’t a pretty sight. When the reality of the situation doesn’t come into play until after the facts, it’s certain that California’s legislators aren’t acting sensibly. Their initiatives will fall into the same category of half-baked dreams that plague the California Legislature now.
Photos by Ilona van der Linden
