Imperial Valley News

Santa Barbara, California - Participating in a conference of green-tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives and environmental and business journalists, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger again today explained how California's environmental policies and focus on booming clean- and green-tech industries will help the state weather a slowed-down economy. He spoke about California's wave of growth in the green technology industry during a conversation at the Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics Conference in Santa Barbara.

"California's environmental policies are driving a whole new industrial revolution in our state that is opening up huge opportunities for California companies to grow and strengthening our economy at a time when it could use the help," said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "California represents almost half of all green-tech investment in the U.S., and all signs point to continued growth. In fact, venture capitalists last year invested $1.78 billion in California green technology companies-that's double what it was from the year before."

California companies are producing a growing share of green technology patents and numerous energy efficient products and services, allowing companies and individuals to expand while reducing their energy use. According to Next10's "California Green Innovation Index" California patents account for 44 percent of all U.S. patents in solar and 37 percent in all U.S. patents in wind technologies. Additionally, since 1990, the green business establishments in the state have grown by 84 percent and employment has doubled.

Under the Governor's leadership, California has launched the world's most aggressive energy efficiency program in the world. Over a three-year period, this program will eliminate the need to build three power plants, saving consumers $2 billion.

Governor Schwarzenegger has led California in establishing laws and policies creating sustainable demand for green products and has made it a priority to put California at the forefront of the booming green-tech industry.

* Last October, California and a coalition of European Union countries, U.S. states, Canadian provinces, Norway and New Zealand formed the world's first International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) to develop solutions to global climate change. ICAP will provide an international forum in which governments adopting enforceable caps on greenhouse gas emissions will share experience and best practices on the design of emissions trading mechanisms. ICAP will help ensure trading mechanisms are compatible and work to boost demand for low-carbon products and services, promote innovation and reduce the cost of effective reductions to allow swift and ambitious cuts in global warming emissions.

* Last August, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), of which California is a founding participant, announced a common goal to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, reflecting the cumulative total of individual reduction goals for each state and province. California originally signed on to the WCI with the Governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington at the 2007 National Governor's Association winter meeting in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 26, 2007. Utah, Montana and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia have joined since that time.

* In February 2007, the Governor announced that the University of California Berkeley received a $500 million grant from BP to establish the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI). University of California Berkeley is a partner with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on this groundbreaking project. EBI is the first public-private research lab dedicated to renewable fuels and clean energy.

* In January 2007, the Governor announced the world's first Low Carbon Fuel Standard for transportation fuels that requires fuel providers to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels sold in California. This first-of-its kind standard firmly establishes sustainable demand for lower-carbon fuels without favoring one fuel over another. To start, the standard will reduce the carbon intensity of California's passenger vehicle fuels by at least 10 percent by 2020 and more thereafter.