California will use only clean energy by 2045

The California nuclear power plant, located in the Devil's Canyon, will operate generating clean energy until the year 2030.Michael Mariant (AP)

California confirms its leadership in the fight against climate change.

The local Congress worked until late at night, in what was the last day of legislative sessions, on a series of laws that confirm the region's commitment to clean energy.

The congressmen have approved an expenditure of 54,000 million dollars in dozens of projects that aim to make it a clean State, that reaches carbon neutrality, by 2045. At that time, 90% of the energy consumed in the most populated region of the country it will come from green sources.

The legislative package, which has yet to be signed into law by the governor, also includes an extension of the life of the state's only nuclear power plant, limits on oil wells and outlines a plan to boost technology to capture and store the largest emissions. contaminants.

Environmental groups have applauded the approved laws.

To take effect, Governor Gavin Newsom must sign them by September 30.

The environmental groups, however, have warned that for the moment the legislative texts are a declaration of intentions that set ambitious goals to meet.

These lines require that California produce 100% of its clean energy by 2045. In May, the State gave an example of what it is capable of generating almost 100% of the demand only with renewable energy.

The big leap, however, would be in the next 13 years, when the goal is for 90% of energy to be green.

95% must be reached by 2040.

Another of the regulations prevents approving the operation of oil extraction wells that are less than a kilometer from residential areas, schools or community centers.

This will prevent the bombs that can be seen in populous neighborhoods of Los Angeles, near the international airport, in the Baldwin Hills area, and in Wilmington, in Long Beach, to the south of the gigantic city, from proliferating in the urban landscape.

The local senator who proposed the initiative, Lena González, assures that those most affected by the health impacts of this type of drilling are blacks and Latinos.

According to estimates by legislators, some three million people in the state live less than a kilometer away from a well.

It was not the first time lawmakers had tried to pass a law like this.

It had been a recurring promise of several governors.

The most recent case was in August 2020, when congressmen ran into the wall of oil industry interests, one of the most powerful pressure groups in the country.

A similar law back then failed because of votes from Republicans and some Democrats who feared it would affect employment in their districts.

States like Maryland, New Mexico, Oklahoma and even Texas had established safety zones for wells.

The vote came this time at a very different time.

California is suffering a severe heat wave, lasting at least five days, which has triggered maximum temperatures and forced Governor Newsom to declare a state of emergency.

This allows the authorities to increase energy production while the demand registers a peak at the end of the summer.

The Government has started backup generators in the hope that the electricity grid will support and there will be no blackouts.

This context has made it easier to understand another of the regulations approved in the last hour of the legislature.

Congress has extended the life of the Devil's Canyon nuclear plant, located in the center of the state, on the Pacific coast, for five years.

The plant has been a long-standing subject of debate and controversy.

Above all because of the security risks it represents as it is built, like the Japanese Fukushima plant, in an area of ​​high seismic activity.

Environmental deterioration and the challenges facing power generation in an entity with 40 million inhabitants has forced Newsom, who called for its closure a few years ago, to change his mind.

The plant is the largest power generator in California, supplying 10% of the electricity to the grid.

The company that manages it, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), had agreed to close the two rectors of the plant in 2024 and 2025, but a series of blackouts and supply failures in 2020 forced the Sacramento authorities to reconsider

Newsom proposed in 2021 to extend the life of the plant until 2030 and give PG&E a loan of 1.4 billion dollars to facilitate the new five years of operation.

Last month, President Joe Biden announced, in what has been his biggest legislative triumph, an ambitious law that injects an investment of 370,000 million dollars to promote clean technologies.

The goal is for the world's most industrialized country to put a stop to the most polluting emissions by 2050, although the standard is only a goal and not a binding commitment.

California has championed this cause.

Last week, the state authorities were the first to ban the sale of cars that only use gasoline by 2035. Congressmen have approved a multimillion-dollar spending budget that paves the way for the entity to have the greenest face in the country.

The package includes 6,000 million to buy trucks and electric vehicles and 14,000 million for infrastructure projects with a strong emphasis on alternative modes of transport, such as trains.

Some 8,000 million will be used to prepare the electricity grid for the challenge it will face in the coming decades and almost 3,000 million in resources to fight fires.

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