For an energy-starved state, the plan amounted to spinning gold from straw.
At an Orange County-owned landfill, methane gas from decomposing garbage could produce enough electricity to keep the lights blazing and air conditioners humming in thousands of homes.
But when Ridgewood Power embraced the state's call this past year for more energy, there was an unexpected hitch at the end of the road.
"Believe it or not," a company executive recently wrote the governor, "we have a fully operational renewable-energy power plant and nowhere to sell the electricity."
What's more, if Ridgewood does not make electricity out of the methane brewing underground, the county may have to spend as much as $1 million to flare it off and keep the gas from polluting the air.
Ridgewood is far from alone among companies that turn the sun, wind, orchard prunings and other renewable resources into electricity for a price. These green power providers were virtually shut out of the state's emergency response to the energy crisis.
Despite policies and statements espousing renewable energy, officials instead opted to buy from big companies because they could quickly supply high volumes of natural gas-fired electricity and help keep the lights on.
And now that the state has created a power authority to help build billions of dollars in renewable-energy supplies, the agency finds itself hamstrung by California's fiscal problems and powerless to sign new contracts.
The companies left hanging say they feel betrayed.
"All California government officials have terrific sound bites: 'We need renewable power. It does not pollute. It provides diversity [of fuel sources]' and 'It's good for the state,'" said Jonathan Weisgall, vice president of Cal Energy, a geothermal electricity generator in Imperial County. "But their actions are contradicting their words.... California is on the verge of a renewable-energy blackout."
For years, the state's utilities have been required to purchase some green energy on behalf of consumers. But green power is generally more expensive than electricity from gas-fired plants, especially in the early years when capital costs are highest.
As major utilities saw hard financial times during the energy crisis, many of the renewable-power companies went unpaid for months, and some sought to be freed of their contracts so they could sell power on the open market, where prices had become higher.
For a time it had seemed the crisis would open the door for new green power plants. State officials touted renewable energy as a way to help insulate California from the volatile natural gas markets. New plants would create jobs and help the environment. And officials said improved technology and subsidies are making green energy prices more competitive, especially over the long haul, because the fuel is free or very inexpensive.
State's Actions Did Not Match Its Words
But policies and endorsements never translated into much progress:
* When the Department of Water Resources became the power buyer for the state's two largest utilities a year ago, the agency had a legislative mandate to acquire as much green energy as possible. But state auditors recently found that only about 2% of its $43 billion in power contracts went to green producers.
* One mission of the new Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority is boosting the portion of renewable energy in the state's power inventory from 12% to 17% by 2006. But the authority still has no way to finance or buy renewable-energy plants.
* Although the California Energy Commission has awarded $240 million in subsidies since 1998 to help promote green power development, the vast majority has not been paid out because developers don't have their facilities up and running. And that probably won't happen unless someone first wants to buy the electricity.
These twists were startling in a state that claims to be a national leader in developing a green power industry over the last two decades. They came as the governor and others sang the praises of alternatives to gas-fired power plants.
Perhaps no one sang louder than S. David Freeman, the state energy czar who once headed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other major utilities.
Building renewable-energy supplies is a matter of homeland security, he said, because California needs domestic energy supplies that are relatively protected from the winds of terrorism.
"Most oil reserves are in countries that harbor terrorism," he said in a recent interview. "And what are we going to do when we come to that stage of the war on terrorism?"
Freeman, a longtime alternative-energy advocate, was the advisor to Gov. Gray Davis who negotiated some of the long-term power contracts last year.
