Utilities

After vowing to veto this year's biggest environmental bill, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to issue an executive order by midweek that would require all electric utilities to generate a third of their power from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power, by 2020. The order presumably would set no limit on how much of the green power could be imported from other states. Environmentalists, who have been told about the governor's still-evolving plans, said Schwarzenegger also was considering directing the California Air Resources Board to look at broadening the state's definition of renewable energy sources to include large hydroelectric dams and nuclear energy plants.

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)

At the State Capitol, boosting the use of solar power, wind generators and other renewable energy sources is seen as a boon for both the environment and the economy in electricity-hungry California. But with two weeks left in the legislative session, Democrats are hustling to fulfill a commitment they made to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass a law to require all utilities to get a third of their power from "green" sources by 2020. Meeting that pledge isn't easy, and a fight is brewing about just how fast the state can go green and how to accomplish it. The dispute centers on the utilities' slow pace in meeting the existing goal of 20% for 2010 -- spelled out by a law passed in 2006 -- and on how to craft a longer-range plan that hits Schwarzenegger's more ambitious target.

In the gusty predawn hours of Oct. 21, 2007, portions of three wooden utility poles in Malibu Canyon snapped and fell to the ground. Sparks from live electrical wires ignited dry brush, creating an inferno that raced down the canyon into the Civic Center area, destroying 14 structures and 36 vehicles.