Terry Tamminen is the former top environmental advisor of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is also former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He has a reputation for having “turned Arnie green”.
Tamminen left his post as permanent advisor in 2006 but says he still advises Schwarzenegger as well as the governors of Florida, Maryland and, Minnesota, on the renewal of environmental legislation. Tamminen also has a role in venture capital: He sits on the advisory board of San Bruno-based venture capital firm Vantage Point Venture Partners. He is also an operating advisor for Connecticut-based private equity fund Pegasus Capital Advisors.
I talked with Tamminen at his office in Santa Monica about some hot topics in making California greener.
VB: The plan to build a high-speed train to Northern California has given rise to a lot of pro- and con opinions, as we’ve covered. What do you think about the plan?
TT: It’s a great idea. I’m not sure if it’s a best use of public money, though. The first line is said to cost about $40-50 billion. If you take that amount of money and divide it between some big cities that need mass transit, like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernadino, you’ll probably do much better in getting people to use mass transit. The government could encourage the high-speed train with smaller investments and help private investors by giving some land and speeding up the permitting process.
VB: What are the best ways for the government to support using solar power and other renewables?
TT: Californian renewable standards have to be federalized. According to our renewable portfolio standard, 20 percent of the energy in California has to come from renewables by 2010, and 30 percent by 2020. If we had that at the national level, it would spur all kinds of renewables. Then the investors would know that there will be a demand for the product, whether it’s wind or solar power, or something else. Some financial incentives wouldn’t hurt either, because we have been subsidizing fossil fuels for so long.
VB: California is considered the leading state on environmental issues in the US, but there has been criticism that the reforms to make the state greener are not proceeding as quickly as they should. What do you think?
TT: The evidence is very much that we are the leading state. The average American uses 12,000 kWh electricity per person per year, while the average Californian uses 6,700. The policies take some time to become successful. In 2006, when the governor signed the global warming solutions act, we were at that point the first state to have that kind of legislation. Today, there are 28 states that have plans and seven that have put them into law like we have. Several more will do so this year, so by the time the new president takes office in January 2009, the majority of the US population will live in a state that is doing what it would do if it was a separate state under the Kyoto accord, and that’s largely due to the Californian leadership.
VB: Will California reach its goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2010?
TT: We will be a little late, by maybe a year. That’s better than anybody else in the US. Edison’s territory in Southern California is about 16 percent; they’re going to be the closest. Northern California is at about 10 percent. There has been an effort, but one problem is, we don’t have the transmission lines. For example, we have a number of solar thermal projects in the desert, but we don’t have the the transmission lines to get the energy into the city where it’s needed. Rooftop wind and solar plants would solve part of the problem because they don’t need transmission lines. The most important thing to reach the goal is energy efficiency. Even if you have solar and wind power and hydrogen vehicles that emit nothing, it takes time to get those things into the marketplace. Energy efficiency takes place immediately and reduces greenhouse gases.
