James Boyd, the California Energy Commission vice chair, said the partnership’s report offers real world, enforceable and effective recommendations that will help the state to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels in the transportation sector.

Among the key recommendations, he said, is that the state continues to offer incentives for people to buy alternative fuel vehicles and to develop and have people use public transportation.

Strohband said that the state needs to consider the potential far-reaching impacts its policy can have. He noted that Germany, where he came from 15 years ago, does not have a lot of sun, yet it has become a world leader in the solar industry and in solar energy production through its policies, especially its feed-in-tariff program.

Among the recommendations in the report is one that’s likely to be controversial. The report recommends that the California state legislature implement a fossil fuels transportation fee, probably a gas tax.

The example Boyd offers is a $.01-per-gallon increase right away and then a schedule that will raise the tax by $.01 every month until the tax on gas equals about $1.25 per gallon, which is still significantly lower than the tax charged in most European countries, where gas tax can be as high as $6 per gallon.

“Every time someone buys gas at the pump right now, we’re subsidizing them,” said James Sweeney, Stanford University economist and professor.

Story continues here. 

Pictured: Q-Cell's 41 MW solar farm in Finsterwald, Germany, courtesy of Q-Cells.