Proposition 7 and the Pickens Plan

BallotPedia - California Proposition 7, would, if approved, require California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025. In order to make that goal, levels of production of solar, wind and other renewable energy resources will more than quadruple from their current output of 10.9%. It will also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2% annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)requirements of 40% in 2020 and 50% in 2025. Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20% by 2010.

As a Californian resident, I'm all for "going-green", but with the current budgetary crisis I wonder if this sort of measure is doable. Plus, it's a little disconcerting to have an oilman like T. Boone Pickens supporting the plan. I like his current commercials, but I can't forget he and his cronies engineered the damaging Swift-boat ads against John Kerry. Another reason I am skeptical is oilmen like him are one of the main reasons car companies like GM shelved plans for hybrid/electric cars in the 1990s. The Associated Press says, "The state's utilities already are having trouble meeting California's current mandate to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2010. A recent report by the state Public Utilities Commission projects California will miss the target by at least three years."

This leads me to ask how the state expects utility companies to meet the 50% target if they can barely meet the current mandates? I don't know about anyone else, but my electric bill has gotten so high I feel as though I've been forced back to the stone ages. I can't even turn on the A/C, so I'm forced to swelter in stifling heat like I'm living in a hut in Africa!