California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the state budget crisis put to bed for the new fiscal year, is planning to turn his attention to energy. In his “state-of-the-state” address kicking off the year he emphasized the so-called hydrogen highway, energy efficiency and renewables, but he has stressed that much can be done within an existing law (AB 57) passed two years ago.

In that regard, Schwarzenegger met in Sacramento Tuesday with the head of the California Public Utilities Commission, Michael Peevey, and one of his CPUC colleagues, Geoffrey Brown, stressing his desire to get more power plants built through aggressive resource-procurement programs by the private-sector utilities, according to sources in the state capital.

A spokesperson said the governor had initially emphasized his approach to energy in a letter to Peevey, Brown and their other colleagues on the five-member regulatory commission last April.

While it has drawn attention around the state in local news media this week, a residential solar program — “A Million Solar Homes Initiative” — from Schwarzenegger’s state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a draft concept from the cabinet-level unit at this point, the spokesperson said.

“It is really very premature, and it would be real speculation at this point to assume the governor will endorse the proposal,” said the spokesperson. “No proposal has been brought to the governor at this point.”

As he did last week in rounding up business and energy stakeholders in the public and private sectors for a pep talk on stepping up demand response and energy conservation measures this summer, the spokesperson hinted that the governor’s next move may be to call a similar “summit” on short notice to look at the renewable energy proposals in the state.

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