California has an opportunity to replace polluting natural gas plants with clean local energy — and never build another new gas plant again. But the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) must require efficient market mechanisms to ensure this happens in the most timely and cost-effective manner possible.
This fall, environmental groups, local leaders, and advocates won an astonishing victory when a California Energy Commission (CEC) committee rejected plans for the new Puente gas plant in Ventura County. That development, on the heels of the CPUC rejecting the refurbishment of the Ellwood Peaker Plant in Santa Barbara County, led many to question whether another gas plant will ever be built in the state.
