Nevada governor signs bill raising clean energy standard

Associated Press

CARSON CITY — Nevada’s governor signed a bill Monday requiring electricity companies to get half of their energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was joined by a crowd of Republican and Democratic state lawmakers during the bill signing.

“This milestone piece of legislation will also help reduce emissions that negatively impact the health and well-being of Nevadans,” Sisolak said.

The clean energy standard under the legislation will be gradually ramped up to the 50 percent mark.

Lawmakers in the Assembly approved the measure on Friday and it passed the state Senate with a unanimous vote.

State Sen. Chris Brooks previously told lawmakers that he introduced the legislation “in the spirit” of a 2018 ballot measure to amend the state Constitution and require the same 2030 clean energy standard as outlined in the bill.

The ballot measure passed and would have to succeed at the polls again in 2020 to amend the Nevada Constitution.

“Fighting for a more sustainable future has been the focus of my career here, and we have to give this effort everything we have,” Brooks told lawmakers at the hearing.

He said the legislation will expand current clean energy standards regulated by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada.

The bill also outlines when the commission will be able to impose an administrative fine or take other administrative action against an electricity provider that fails to meet the renewable energy standards.

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer, whose group NextGen America supported the ballot measure, said the bill is an important step toward addressing the planet’s climate problems and provides far more jobs than fossil fuel-based energy.

Clean energy “is the cheapest energy in the United States,” he said. “It saves people from a lot of the health problems associated with dirty air.”