SACRAMENTO – (INT) - The California Assembly adjourned over the weekend without taking up for a vote Senate Bill 100.

It was designed to get California to 100% clean energy by 2045 and would have accelerated the state’s existing goals for transitioning to renewable energy and would have set a 2045 goal for all retail electricity in the state to be created without greenhouse gas pollution.

According to current law, 50 percent of California electricity must come from renewable sources by the end of 2030, which the proposal shifts to 2026. The state would need to hit 52 percent by 2028 and 60 percent by 2031.

The measure faced unusual opposition from labor unions that originally endorsed the measure. Utility and electrical workers changed sides late in the game.

Assemblyman Chris Holden, (D-Pasadena), elected to hold the bill in the house’s utility and energy committee, effectively killing it for the year. Holden, the utility chair, said the measure came to his committee too late to craft amendments that appeased labor and still resulted in sound policy.

A ballot measure voters passed in November requires bills to be in print without changes for 72 hours before the final vote, the San Francisco Chronicle noted.

Story Date: September 20, 2017