Crown Capital Management

Source

A debate currently raging in the California Legislature will greatly influence the state's economic and energy future. The oil and gas industry is lobbying hard to expand hydraulic fracturing – a dangerous process commonly known as fracking – into the Central Valley'sworld-class agricultural lands, and there's no shortage of controversy over the projected impacts.

Unfortunately, the debate has fallen into the false choice between the economy and the environment. This is not the real choice at hand. Expanding the development of clean energy in California can drive sustained economic growth while also protecting the state's vital agricultural and environmental resources.

The renewable energy industry has already proven itself a powerful and reliable economic driver in California. Since 1995, the clean energy economy has grown by more than 120 percent, 10 times more than California's overall economic growth during the same period. Clean energy generation was in fact one of California's few "recession resistant" industries that provided steady employment during the recent economic downturn. We have a real opportunity to spur additional innovation, private investment and job creation by accelerating the deployment of more clean energy.

Forward-thinking utilities in the state are realizing that smart energy policies can translate Californians' increasing demand for renewable energy into significant economic growth. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power unveiled its Clean LA Solar Initiative, which opens the energy market to broader participation by enabling individuals, organizations and businesses to build local solar projects and sell the energy produced to the utility.

The program has received huge interest. During the program's opening week, the Department of Water and Power received applications to build more local solar projects than the entire program currently allows – highlighting a major economic opportunity to develop more local solar. If Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti follows through on his campaign pledge to expand the program to 600 megawatts, a UCLA study found his city would reap 18,000 new jobs and $2 billion in private investment.

Sacramento initiated a similar program with startling success in 2010. In just two years, theSacramento Municipal Utilit