DBL Partners’ Managing Partner Nancy Pfund placed an article in today’s San Jose Mercury News. The link to the piece is here. The content is recreated below.
When I took home my new Tesla Model S last June, I learned what it meant to be a celebrity. Not me, mind you, my car.
Long-lost friends emailed me, complete strangers high-fived me, and I started writing myself reminders to “give so-and-so a ride in the Model S.”
Driving this sleek sedan is a privilege I don’t take for granted. And thanks in large part to California’s visionary energy and vehicle standards, the Model S — which travels up to 300 miles per charge, with minimal impact on our air and climate — offers a glimpse of our automotive future. While it’s a premium-priced car, future models will be increasingly accessible. Our state can be a mecca for this job-creating new e‑vehicle industry.
As an investor, I’m excited about the possibilities, and as a Californian, I’m proud. After seeing Gov. Jerry Brown last June share in the excitement of the Model S launch in Fremont, I believe he is equally optimistic about our state’s clean energy future.
Unfortunately, Brown is being pressured heavily by interest groups that want to weaken clean air laws, particularly the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCSF), signed as an executive order by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007. The standard is aimed at reducing the transportation sector’s greenhouse gas emissions while boosting California’s growing clean energy industry.
After an extensive regulatory process, the fuel standard took effect in January 2011. It requires that fuel providers gradually reduce the carbon intensity of their fuels and lets them meet the standard through a variety of strategies, including offering advanced biofuels or natural gas, improving production techniques or buying credits for electricity used to fuel vehicles such as the Tesla.
In the future, it may allow for exciting synergies. Consider the rapid progress of the popular California Solar Initiative, which provides state residents of all income levels with gradually decreasing incentives to install solar panels. This month, California passed the 1 Gigawatt mark, having installed enough solar power, in tens of thousands of homes and businesses, to match the output of a nuclear reactor.
Thanks to the solar initiative and the innovative fuel standard, the day shouldn’t be far off when residents will be able to solar-charge their electric cars at home and even sell the clean energy credits produced in the process, reducing their energy costs even further. That would be a win-win-win-win for consumers, workers, manufacturers, and of course the environment.Energy transitions are never easy. Many of our energy laws, but particularly the low carbon standard, have met resistance from parts of the fossil fuel industry, even though fossil fuels have benefited from their own special subsidies for decades.Obviously, not all oil companies are going to embrace this policy. Over time, however, forward-thinking businesses will transform themselves into energy companies with a more climate-friendly array of products. That’s why it’s in everyone’s interests to level the playing field for clean fuel technologies.
Brown has been ahead of the curve for decades on clean and efficient energy policy. Now, more than ever, our governor has the opportunity to double down on his support for the fuel standard and our other important clean energy laws. Investors need a strong market signal to start driving the clean industries of the future. Not to mention some very cool cars.
