Christmas comes early for PG&E

Christmas came early this year for California’s utility companies after they were awarded $62.7m last week in bonuses to compensate them for selling less electricity to customers. That now brings the total to $206,378,244 just for two years' worth of energy savings.

And who pays the bonuses? The customers.

The so-called energy efficiency shareholder bonus scheme is just one example of how the state’s utility regulator, the California Public Utilities Commission, ties itself in knots trying to appease the big electricity suppliers and ends up with policy that has only a weak impact on emissions, and displeases the public - giving energy efficiency a bad name in the state.

Clean tech California flexes muscle under Schwarzenegger but Michigan pumps ion after Granholm

Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to step down as governor and has vowed to continue his "green activism". Although Schwarzenegger is a Republican, any criticism of his push for climate change action in the state probably came from his own party, rather than the Democrats. At his last Governors' Global Climate Summit, he talked so much about flexing muscle against big oil special interests and used metaphors that normally belong in the gym I felt like I'd had a work out myself after his 30-odd minutes on the podium.


Californians will be sad to see him go, but only when they're not talking about the $25bn budget deficit he's left behind. But who will flex the climate muscle and take his place as "climate action hero" among America's governors?