October 11, 2026
By Alex Jackson
Measure will help state meet clean energy goals
California has set ambitious clean energy targets, including 100% clean electricity and economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2045. Meeting those goals entails more renewable generation, battery storage, transmission and grid infrastructure — and building it fast.
The shift away from fossil fuels must also be done affordably, so the cost of the clean energy transition doesn’t fall on consumers. Unfortunately, too many clean energy projects spend years navigating environmental review, permitting and litigation, raising costs and slowing essential progress.
That’s why I support Proposition 45, to help California build clean energy and other essential infrastructure faster and more affordably. Prop 45 puts clear, enforceable timelines around the permitting and review process so the clean energy projects California is counting on get built on schedule and on budget.
I spent 12 years as a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council helping advance some of California’s signature climate policies. Today, I lead American Clean Power-California, representing wind, solar, storage and transmission companies. From both perspectives, one thing is clear: Setting ambitious clean energy goals is the easy part. Building the infrastructure to meet them is the challenge.
California isn’t simply swapping out old power plants for new ones — we’re asking the grid to power more vehicles, more buildings and more businesses at once. We can’t retire fossil fuel plants until clean replacements are online, and the state’s energy agencies project that we must add roughly 8,000 megawatts of new clean energy and storage resources to the grid every year for the next two decades.
Consider the Panoche Valley solar project in San Benito County. Approved by the county in 2010 at roughly 420 megawatts, the project faced a lawsuit over its environmental review. Opponents lost, appealed and lost again, then brought a third challenge after the developer revised the project. By the time it finally began operating eight years later, it had been cut to less than a third of its original size.
Prop 45 would have addressed the Panoche Valley project’s challenges at every stage. Prop 45 sets deadlines from application completeness and environmental review through remaining agency approvals and litigation. Prop 45 does this while maintaining California’s bedrock environmental laws and protections and retaining local control and community input. Local governments keep their authority to approve or deny projects in their own communities, and citizens keep a meaningful voice throughout the process.
We don’t have to choose between environmental protection and building the clean energy infrastructure it needs to address climate change. Building that infrastructure is environmental protection at scale, and Prop 45 shows how to do it right: preserving environmental standards while curbing frivolous lawsuits and delays so legitimate concerns get resolved and clean energy projects get built.
Alex Jackson is the executive director of American Clean Power-California.