California’s steady rise to carbon-free electricity is a historic one, as the country actively develops and/or enacts policies that fiercely protect the environment and, consequently, our future. In August of 2018, it passed SB100, which requires the state to use 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045, and was signed by Governor Jerry Brown a month later. As the world’s fifth-largest economy, the law’s impact will significantly shape action towards greater protection for our planet. 

Earlier this year, more states echoed similar targets and are building support for a 100% clean energy policy, set in motion by Hawaii in 2015, a similar federal legislation from Oregon in 2017, and has since been backed by more than a hundred cities across the country. A report from The Los Angeles Times notes that “the state’s actions have reshaped how industries do business, changed people’s habits and set the agenda for other states and countries. Automakers, for instance, have been forced to build increasingly fuel-efficient cars for decades because of California’s authority to set tailpipe-emission rules stricter than those of the federal government.” 

At present, the Golden State is underway to reaching one of its targets: reducing greenhouse gas levels to 1990 levels, 431 million metric tons, by 2020. But there’s plenty of work that still needs to be done. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “State officials said the emissions from California’s industrial sectors, which accounted for 21% of all the greenhouse gases they tracked in 2017, fell slightly or stayed the same. Fossil-fuel-dependent refineries and hydrogen production were responsible for a third of that, while the rest came from sources such as extraction of oil and gas, cement plants, glass manufacturers and food processors.” 

Clean energy sources also generated most of the state’s power, according to Governor Gavin Newsom’s office. “California is proving that smart climate policies are good for our economy and good for the planet,” Newsom said in a statement.