Bill Text: CA ACR142 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

---

Bill Title: City of Lancaster: solar energy.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-06-23 - In committee: Hearing cancelled at the request of author. [ACR142 Detail]

Download: California-2013-ACR142-Introduced.html

---

BILL NUMBER: ACR 142	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Fox

                        MAY 1, 2014

   Relative to the City of Lancaster.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 142, as introduced, Fox. City of Lancaster: solar energy.
   This measure would designate the City of Lancaster as the
California Alternative Energy Research and Development Center.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster is a city covering 94.5 square
miles in the Mojave Desert region, also known as the High Desert,
with an average of 325 sunny days per year; and
   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has been recognized by the state's
California Solar Initiative as the city with the highest solar
generation per capita in the state, boasting 32 megawatts of
currently operating solar generating capacity and an additional 179
megawatts approved and planned for construction; and
   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has established partnerships with a
number of private-sector solar development firms, including eSolar,
Silverado, sPower, U.S. Topco, Psomas, and others, in an effort to
foster renewable energy resources development and to create
green-collar jobs in California; and
   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has partnered with renewable energy
firm SolarCity to establish the Solar Lancaster program, which
encourages and facilitates the adoption of solar energy by residents
and businesses through the use of innovative financing mechanisms;
and
   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has incorporated solar generating
technology on virtually all of its municipal facilities, creating a
combined 1.45 megawatts of solar energy while saving taxpayers an
estimated six million dollars ($6,000,000) over 15 years; and
   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has partnered with SolarCity and
Lancaster and Eastside School Districts to construct solar shade
structures at 25 school sites throughout Lancaster, generating over
three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) in cost savings annually
for its schools; and
   WHEREAS, Through the City of Lancaster's support and promotion of
clean, nonpolluting solar energy, Lancaster Municipal Stadium, home
of the California League Lancaster JetHawks, became the first minor
league baseball stadium in the country to maintain a solar generating
system that offsets nearly 100 percent of its electricity use; and
   WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has been recognized locally,
nationally, and internationally for its commitment to solar
generation and renewable energy resources, with a wide range of
awards and recognitions including the 2012 Wolfgang Neumann Energy
Globe World Award in the "Fire" (energy) category, the 2013
Outstanding Public Works Project of the Year, and the 2011 Best Use
of Technology by the American Public Work's Association-High Desert
Branch for its renewable energy projects; and
   WHEREAS, Mayor R. Rex Parris announced in 2011 the city's goal of
becoming the world's first net-zero city, a designation bestowed upon
cities that produce as much energy from sustainable sources as they
consume; and
   WHEREAS, On March 26, 2013, the Lancaster City Council approved
Ordinance 989, which requires that new homes constructed on parcels
of 7,000 square feet or larger must include at least one kilowatt of
solar generating capacity and, when that ordinance took effect on
January 1, 2014, the City of Lancaster became the first city in the
United States to require solar systems on new homes in an effort to
make the community more carbon-neutral; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California
hereby designates the City of Lancaster as the "California
Alternative Energy Research and Development Center"; and be it
further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.