California is set to hit its green-energy goals a decade early

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California is both the nation's leading renewable-energy proponent and one of the few states to actually put its power where its mouth is. In November, the California Energy Commission released its annual Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) report which found that the state's three investor-owned utilities -- Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric -- are on track to collectively offer 50 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2020. That's a full decade faster than anyone had anticipated.

Reports like these have been used to promote clean-energy production throughout the US and the rest of the world since the 1970s. However, it wasn't until 2002 that California codified the practice. But despite being in effect for only 15 years, California's mandatory reporting has become a potent tool in fighting greenhouse-gas emissions throughout the state.

As of last year, 32.9 percent of PG&E's power came from renewable resources, as did 28.2 percent from SoCal Edison and a whopping 43.2 percent from San Diego Gas -- granted, SDG&E is by far the state's smallest investor-owned utility.

And, despite critics' complaints that moving to renewables would stymie economic growth and increase the electric bills of customers throughout the state, it's actually been quite the opposite. In the last seven years, California has seen a massive construction boom in the solar- and wind-energy sectors. The price of solar power has dropped to under $30 in 2016 from around $136 per megawatt-hour in 2008, while wind power prices have fallen to $51 in 2015 from $97 per megawatt-hour in 2007, per the report. Over the same period, the state has seen greenhouse-gas emissions from electricity generation decrease nearly every year.

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