PLATFORM : A Green Light

California’s energy utilities and Congress recognize the need to increase the bang for our energy buck, and to decrease the environmental effects of energy production and use. The solutions to both issues are energy efficiency and competition.

The new Clinton Administration promises to focus on energy efficiency, building on the recently enacted energy bill’s provisions for major federal funding for the development of alternative-fuel vehicles, including the cleanest vehicle fuel of all--electricity. While progress has been made in bringing non-polluting renewable energy resources into being, much work remains to make them cost-competitive with fossil energy sources. With appropriate joint public-private research and development efforts, that can be done.

Transportation represents a gold mine of energy opportunity. We can mine that gold with public-private partnership efforts to develop infrastructure for electric transportation and other alternative fuels that could be viable tomorrow.

Utilities can play a key role in solving these infrastructure problems. We have unique and only partially tapped knowledge. And it’s in the utilities’ own self-interest to solve problems in the areas they serve. After all, we’re one of a handful of companies that can’t pull up stakes and leave town.