California Proposition 7: Taking the Green out of Renewable Energy

A Few Giant Players

Proposition 7's supporters have claimed that the measure will force the utilities to obey renewable energy standards, and have portrayed the measure's opposition as emanating from those same utilities. If it is opposed by PG&E and Southern Cal Edison -- companies that helped to author deregulation legislation that ultimately cost California ratepayers and taxpayers tens of billions of dollars -- then, the argument goes, the measure must be in the public's interest. This guilt-by-association tactic seems crafted to conceal the many ways in which Proposition 7 concentrates power in the hands of a few entities, if not precisely the same entities that gave California the "electricity crisis" of 2000 and 2001.

Of the companies that appear to be poised to benefit from subsidies for industrial-scale solar facilities, several have a history of or stake in military contracting. A case in point is a recent change in ownership of the world's largest solar power facility: the Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS) plants located in the Mojave desert. In February of 2005, FPL Energy and Carlyle/Riverstone acquired a controlling interest in the largest part of the SEGS plants, at Kramer Junction.

FPL is a leading wholesale generator with annual revenues of $10 billion. FPL has been acquiring industrial-scale wind and solar facilities and owns and operates several nuclear power plants, which it describes as safe, reliable, and "a clean energy source".

Carlyle/Riverstone is an arm of the the Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm managing $75 billion in assets, and has a history of buying and selling military contractors. Carlyle's list of current and former employees and advisors includes George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, James Baker III, Frank C. Carlucci (Former US Secretary of Defense), and Shafig bin Laden (half-brother of Osama bin Laden).

One company that Carlyle owns a stake in is URS, a Pentagon contracting giant that appears to be turning some of its attention to industrial-scale renewables, judging from its studies of siting plants in California's deserts, and its work to assist Sterling Energy Systems with permit acquisition. SES, which has already scored one of the largest contracts to date for energy to be produced by desert-sited solar factories, is headquartered in Phoenix, home of Proposition 7's main financial backer.