Alternative Energy

Fans of John McPhee's 1981 book "Basin and Range" will remember Kenneth S. Deffeyes, the longtime Princeton professor who helped guide the reader through what was then called the "New Geology. " "Deffeyes," McPhee wrote, "is a big man with a tenured waistline. His hair flies behind him like Ludwig van Beethoven. He lectures in sneakers. " Deffeyes doesn't lecture anymore — he retired in 1998 — but his hair still tends to get unruly. Likewise, the findings in Deffeyes' latest book might cause oil executives — even those not affiliated with BP — to go gray overnight.

The clean-tech industry got a bit of a spark ? and a jolt ? from the elections this week. While most in the industry cheered California's election results, with the defeat of Proposition 23 and Jerry Brown's gubernatorial victory, many said they were worried about the shifting makeup of Congress, where many advocates for climate-change legislation lost their seats Tuesday. FOR THE RECORD: Green tech: In an article in the Nov. 6 Business section about the results of state and national elections on the clean-tech sector, a company name was inadvertently changed during production.

During the campaign season, it was easy to dismiss the idea of a green energy future for California as mere campaign rhetoric. But with the second coming of Jerry Brown, the reelection of Barbara Boxer and voter endorsement of state policies to curb global warming, California really is poised to lead the country to a greener future. FOR THE RECORD: California: A Nov. 4 Op-Ed about Jerry Brown and California's green future said voters passed Proposition 187 in 1984. It passed in 1994.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman paints rival Jerry Brown as a machine Democrat who as governor decades ago spent big and coddled liberal interests while pursuing an expansive role for government. Brown says he was a deficit hawk who deftly managed the state's finances and a world-class educational system. Neither of the conflicting portrayals, featured in the battle the two have been waging on California's airwaves, is exactly how those eight years went. Brown disdained political convention and protocol and refused to govern as a run-of-the-mill liberal.

Despite being barely one-20th the size of the U.S. and more often overcast, Germany still manages to produce four times as much solar-generated power. That's because, according to green-tech analysts, Germany has a government-mandated program that requires utilities there to pay homeowners, warehouse operators and companies for power from their rooftop solar installations. Called a feed-in tariff, it's an arrangement that clean-tech proponents are pushing California to replicate, hoping that such programs can boost alternative energy production in the state.

The clean-tech industry is booming in California, with more money being invested in solar and other alternative energy start-ups than anywhere else in the world. But the state's dominant position is being threatened by competition from China and an upcoming ballot initiative that could undercut the industry's growth, according to two new studies unveiled Wednesday. So far, the state's green-tech industry, which includes electric vehicles, eco-friendly buildings and solar energy projects, has provided California with a much-needed economic boost.

The battle over California's global-warming law took to the air this week with television spots touting or bashing Proposition 23, a ballot initiative to suspend regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. A 30-second TV spot in favor of Prop 23 features a middle-aged woman in a white-columned home on a tree-lined street telling viewers "I have enough bills. Now the politicians are putting a new energy tax on us to pay for California's global-warming law. " It is airing in Sacramento, the Central Valley and San Diego.

Community college students will find it easier to transfer to California's four-year universities under bills signed Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But he vetoed dozens of others, including one that would have made nursing employment agencies verify a nurse's fitness to work and another that called for tougher penalties for those who smuggle cellphones into prisons. Facing a Thursday night deadline to clear his desk of 500 bills, the governor Wednesday vetoed 87 and signed 126, including measures to streamline environmental review rules for construction projects and providing for storage of electricity generated by the sun and wind.

Last week, I was stuck in a traffic jam in Zhongguancun, the high-technology zone in northwest Beijing that's supposed to be China's Silicon Valley. But right then, it looked more like the 405 on a very bad day. The air was hot, thick and dark gray with smog. Six lanes of cars, trucks and buses were at a near-standstill in both directions. The driver predicted — accurately— that the nine-mile drive to downtown would take an hour. I found myself thinking: This is the new, green China I've been reading about?

Environmentalists were counting on big gains in Sacramento this summer, with a governor eager to burnish his green credentials in his final months in office. But by the time the legislative session ended at midnight Tuesday, those hopes had fizzled. Activists had worked for passage of such pioneering measures as a ban on plastic grocery bags and expanded use of the sun, wind and other renewable resources to power California homes and businesses. But the bold proposals they saw as a springboard to nationwide environmental efforts collapsed in the face of aggressive industry opposition that included intensive lobbying, television advertising and even mail to voters.