Renewable energy in California: Changing policies, politics and values, 1975--2005

Since at least the 1970s, the environmental, economic, and national security benefits of renewable energy have been well known, but overall public policy has insufficiently supported the growth of renewable energy production. Unlike the federal and other state governments, California, during the 1970s and 1980s, made a commitment to a renewable energy future. Had this commitment persisted, California might have taken a remarkably different trajectory from the rest of the country. Instead, renewable energy production actually declined after the early 1990s. Recently, California has initiated new policies that promise once again to make California a world leader in renewable energy policy. This project helps to explain the mixed results of California's earlier ambitious renewable energy programs and assess prospects for current efforts. Using historical and statistical approaches, this dissertation focuses on three technology groups: wind power, solar thermal, and the life- style technologies, bicycles and passive solar neighborhoods. Cases of particular policies affecting each of these technology groups are examined at various levels of governance from the federal and state levels down to the informal neighborhood committee. Politics, institutions, and ideas about energy and markets restricted the policy process over the past three decades, often resulting in suboptimal policy design and execution. Those policies that depended least on legislation and most on strong regulatory agencies succeed most in terms of impact and longevity. The most important impediments to and opportunities for multiplying, expanding, and reviving renewable energy policies are ideological in nature.