Landmark Clean Energy Bill Signed into Law

This morning at the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 350 into law. SB 350 requires California to generate 50% of our energy from clean, renewable sources, and to increase our energy efficiency by 50%, all by 2030. Here’s the story in the Los Angeles Times. Kudos to Governor Jerry Brown for laying out an ambitious agenda for clean energy in his State of the State address at the beginning of the year, and to Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León for championing the bill through the legislature despite heavy opposition from the fossil fuel industry. 

Concerns about global warming have driven the CALPIRG Student Chapters to prioritize working to promote clean energy solutions, and our chapters were active in supporting SB 350. The students organized a lobby day back in March to meet with their local representatives and urge their support for this bill and a package of other clean energy policies. Later in the year, CALPIRG student activists held a number of phonebanks and campus days of action to shore up the support of key Assemblymembers who were facing a lot of pressure from the oil industry to oppose the bill.  

Photos: CALPIRG Students at the Sacramento Capitol building, Berkeley CALPIRG students holding a day of action for SB 350, and USC CALPIRG students phonebanking in support of SB 350