Climate of Our Future

California to Establish Electric and Natural Gas Surcharge to Fund Green Think Tank. By Bernie Woodall, Reuters, April 10, 2008. “California electricity and natural gas customers will be charged $600 million over the next 10 years to fund a green think tank, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously voted on Thursday. A surcharge to monthly power and gas bills will fund the California Institute for Climate Solutions, linked to the University of California. The surcharge will be tacked on customer bills of investor-owned utilities and not of municipal utilities in Los Angeles and Sacramento… Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement that the institute will ‘bring together the state’s preeminent colleges, universities, and laboratories to fight climate change.’”