Without raising taxes on anyone, Proposition 7 will assure that by 2025 half of the electricity in California comes from solar and clean energy resources, including wind, geothermal, biomass tidal, and small hydro. Unlike today, all California utilities will be required to meet these solar and clean energy goals.

The proposition will not raise our taxes one cent. The proposition creates goals for private companies to provide solar and clean electricity; and deadlines for the utilities to provide solar and clean electricity-half by 2025.

So far, all solar and clean electricity contracts have been below the market price! The Public Utilities Commission published a study that said that if we want a 33% goal of solar and clean electricity by 2020, our long term rates would go down. The non-partisan State of California Legislative Analyst Office found out that this proposition provides possible offsetting cost savings over the long term to the extent the proposition hastens renewable energy development. That's a trend we can all live with.

The technologies in the proposition are working now. PG&E just signed two long term contracts with solar generators. And that's just the beginning. The Department of Energy studies and developments in solar thermal technology indicate that 150,000 acres in the California desert could provide all the electricity California needs. A study published in Scientific American (January 2008) found that solar energy alone could meet 69% of the electricity needs of the entire United States.

First, Proposition 7 will not cost Californians anything. Second, can we afford not to do it? With climate change and global warming a fact of life, our very lifestyle and economic health are being threatened directly. Can we really say that we can live with an unreliable snow pack, and rising sea levels that put our coastal cities under water?

Private companies who build solar and clean energy plants will pay for their own costs of development and construction; and utilities will buy solar and clean electricity from them for resale to customers like you and me.

The heat from solar energy can be stored for later use. Also, battery technology will allow solar energy to be stored for use at a later time. Solar electricity will be combined with other clean technologies such as wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, and small hydro to assure a continuous electricty supply for our homes and businesses.

The crisis facing the planet is not only about the amount of energy being used, it is about the type. Electricity generation using dirty fossil fuels is the largest single contributor to global warming. Using more efficient light bulbs, but still using coal and natural gas, will not put a significant dent in global warming.

If you are a "throw in the towel pessimist," the answer is yes. However, if you still believe that the nation that put a man on the moon in nine years, built the Interstate Highway System, built the Panama Canal and built the Transcontinental Railroad still have some game left, then we think it is time for America to believe in our future again. That's why we are supporting Proposition 7.

The nuclear reaction used to generate electricity does not-in and of itself- generate any greenhouse gases. However, the mining of uranium is very energy intensive, and generates significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Also, the care and disposal of nuclear waste material will generate significant economic and environmental costs for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Approving and building a new nuclear power plant can take over 20 years. Under Proposition 7, solar and clean energy plants can be approved and on-line within three years.

AB 32 is a good step in the right direction. AB 32 requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regulations and market mechanisms that will ultimately reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. Existing law (SB 702) requires utilities to provide 20% of the electricity they sell from solar and clean resources by 2010. Proposition 7 completes the job that AB 32 started. Under Proposition 7, all utilities, including municipally owned utilities such as LADWP and SMUD, will be required to meet the solar and clean energy goals; and to also provide 40% solar and clean electricity by 2020 and 50% by 2025. Proposition 7 provides long term 20 year contracts, Solar and Clean Energy Zones and fast tracking of solar and clean energy plants with environmental protections. Utilities that insist on providing dirty electricity will be fined.