Solar Wind

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will expand its use of solar, wind and other renewable power sources from 3% of its electricity portfolio to 20% by 2017, its governing board agreed Monday, although environmentalists said the goal should be met earlier. The board, which was appointed by Mayor James K. Hahn, approved the policy a little more than a month before Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa becomes mayor.

The United States has not joined the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gases, but the pact nevertheless is boosting sales for American companies that market "clean" energy technologies. The spread of renewable-energy standards -- particularly in Europe -- propelled by the treaty, along with a surge in oil and gas prices, has triggered a boom in business for solar and wind energy companies. When Solar Integrated Technologies Inc.

A quarter of a century ago, California stood at the vanguard in the development of alternative energy worldwide. With Gov. Jerry Brown lighting the way--and enduring no small measure of ridicule for doing so--the state took the lead in finding ways to coax electricity from the sun and wind, underground steam and agricultural waste.

It's not a regulatory arm of the government, but try to find a gadget in your home that Underwriters Laboratories hasn't touched. Check under the computer mouse or the smoke alarm, beneath the light switch or on the TV cable, and the telltale "UL" stamp will be there. The marking means the device is unlikely to catch fire. And if you accidentally drive away from the gas station with the nozzle still in the tank, UL is the reason you don't haul away the entire pump and set the neighborhood ablaze.

The Senate on Thursday rejected a measure to require that 20% of the nation's electricity be produced from renewable sources such as solar and wind power by 2020, dealing environmentalists their latest defeat on energy policy. The action came a day after the Senate, as it debates legislation focusing on a variety of energy issues, refused to set tougher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, SUVs and other vehicles. The measure on renewable energy sources, sponsored by Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has done a lot of admirable work protecting California's wild desert lands from development, but her latest plans for the Mojave threaten to split the state's environmental community and could stall clean- energy projects whose construction should be among the nation's highest priorities.

After President Nixon went to China, the United States urged that nation's leaders to forget Marx and Mao and embrace the blessings of capitalism. Unfortunately, it's been wryly said, they took our advice. Americans have by now become inured to China peeling off layers of the U.S. manufacturing base. The Asian giant, though, has never been at the starting gate of a new industry that promised exceptional growth. That's a natural place for America, we like to think. Indeed, the U.S.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has approved two major initiatives that will require utilities to pay consumers for generating extra power and will boost the payoff for certain solar facilities. Homes, businesses and schools that have solar panels or wind turbines previously had no financial incentive to use less electricity than they generated. But AB 920, written by Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), will encourage efficiency, supporters say. SB 32, by state Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino)

Here, in alphabetical order, are 10 places I'd like to see in 2013. Several are cities, one is a state, three are entire nations, and all have interesting things happening in the weeks and months ahead. Will I get to them all? Probably not. But if I did, in alphabetical order, come December, I'd be able to swagger into some stylish Seoul watering hole, possibly limping slightly from a sled-dog mishap under the northern lights, but gamely standing rounds and spinning yarns of Ecuadorean trainspotting and what I learned from the reenactors at Gettysburg, Pa. Would you listen?

At a recent solar energy conference in Anaheim, economic development officials from Ohio talked up a state that seemed far removed from the solar panels and high-tech devices that dominated the convention floor. Ohio, long known for its smokestack auto plants and metal-bending factories, would be an ideal place for green technology companies to set up shop, they said. "People don't traditionally think of Ohio when they think of solar," said Lisa Patt-McDaniel, director of Ohio's economic development agency.