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Senator Alex Padilla (D-Los Angeles) knows that a renewable energy reality has a ways to go to match the alternative power rhetoric. “We can’t meet our ambitious goals with existing practices and technology,” Padilla, the new chair of the Senate Energy Utilities and Communications Committee, told Circuit. Growing the state’s renewable resources and shrinking its carbon emissions requires a vastly improved infrastructure at the local and regional levels, he contends. That includes a wide range of upgrades, from improved solar energy project performance, implementation of efficient “smart grid” technologies, and making way for hybrid vehicles that can plug into power lines. Padilla did not provide his definition of smart grid--as it means different things to different people--but said examples include monitoring and being able to control energy use in homes and businesses, both in the building and remotely. The Los Angeles legislator supports paying set long-term prices to renewable energy developers to promote alternative power by providing financial security. What role these so-called feed-in tariffs will play to help increase energy independence and security remains to be seen. Another obstacle to making the electricity infrastructure cleaner and more efficient is the current financial crisis. However, the state must still “forge ahead” and “not abandon our goals.” Padilla says he is forging ahead. The senator is one of the coauthors of a bill that would mandate that 33 percent of the state’s power come from renewable resources by 2020. Legislation attempting to raise the renewable bar from 20 percent to 33 percent in the state failed in previous sessions. However, late last year the governor pronounced he’d push for a one-third renewable standard, significantly increasing the odds of passage. At that time, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) promised to work to pass legislation implementing a one-third renewable energy mandate within the first 90 days of the new session (Circuit, Nov. 21, 2008). SB 14, also authored by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) and Steinberg, was introduced at the end of last year. It mandates that 33 percent of state energy resources come from solar, wind, and other alternative resources by the end of the next decade. The Senate Energy Committee plans to hear the bill February 3 (see sidebar). Padilla also reintroduced a bill he authored last year to promote alternative power and create green energy jobs by requiring the development of smart grid plans. The current bill is SB 17. The legislation got little traction last year because few lawmakers understood it, he said. It wasn’t until President-elect Barack Obama touted the need for a green power economy that Padilla’s colleagues realized that green energy can advance economic and environmental health, the lawmaker said. Padilla said he plans to keep a close eye on Obama’s efforts to strengthen the economy and environment through clean technology to make sure his legislation and the energy panel’s work dovetail. Padilla’s first exposure to the state energy market was when he sat on the Los Angeles city council, and regulated the Los Department of Water & Power. During his tenure, he pushed the city to adopt a one-fifth renewable energy standard by 2017 (Circuit, Dec. 5, 2008). Given his experience, it is not surprising that Padilla advocates maintaining municipal power agencies’ independence. As far as he is concerned, independence does not equate with alleviating munis’ responsibility to boost their levels of renewable power and energy efficiency and lighten the state’s carbon footprint. “They absolutely should be held accountable in the collaboration of achieving these goals. The goals are the goals.” The Senate Energy Committee chair plans to keep tabs on San Diego Gas & Electric’s development of its $2 billion Sunrise Power link project. Padilla, Steinberg, and other legislators urged the California Public Utilities Commission unsuccessfully to require the massive new transmission line to connect to renewable resources. In the bigger scheme of things, Padilla is delighted with the significant presence of Californians in Washington D.C.--from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) as the new chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, to Steven Chu, the appointee to the Department of Energy Secretary post. A nagging question though is which corner deli he and Waxman will meet at.

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