Well, thank you very much, Michael, for the wonderful introduction. That's exactly the way I wrote it. (Laughter) Very nice, I like that. But I also want to just say thank you for your great leadership, Michael. I mean, it has been really extraordinary working with him, just simply because he's also a visionary; not just someone that gets the job done but he's a visionary. And he always thinks far into the future, what can we do to provide the kind of energy that we need and the technology and all of those kind of things. So we have had a great relationship and he has passion for this subject, so let's give him also a big, big hand for the great work that he has done. (Applause)
But obviously, all the things that we have accomplished, which I think is a lot here in this state, you don't do it by yourself. Nor is it just Michael. It's the whole PUC, all the members. Everyone has worked very hard, so we want to thank them also.
And, of course, also the rest of the team, if it is Linda Adams who is the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, if it is Mary Nichols who is the chair of the California Air Resources Board, or if it is Karen Douglas, the chair of the California Energy Commission, or if it is Yakout Mansour, the president of California's Independent Systems Operators, who has been an extraordinary leader and a great, great -- we have a great working relationship with him.
And then also my point people; Michael Picker -- where is Michael Picker, is he around? Oh, right back here. Michael Picker, who has been extraordinary in bringing everyone together from the federal government, the people locally, all the people that are applying for permits and so on, in renewable energy and solar and wind and on and on. And also his partner, Manal Yamout, who is -- where is Manal? Right over here. Both of them have done an extraordinary job. So let's give this whole team of people that have worked together a great, great hand. (Applause)
Now, it's really interesting when you talk to energy people and then you get up in the morning and the first news you hear is good news. There's also bad news but the good news is that BP has contained the oil leak. That is good news, finally -- finally. (Applause)
The bad news is that no one has figured out to contain Mel Gibson. (Laughter) Mel Gibson no one knows how to contain. So this is why I want to ask all of you to just please turn off your cell phones, because we are expecting a call from him, so I just want to make sure of that. (Laughter)
But anyway, it's great to be here today with all of you. And it's really funny that you come here and you do a talk and the first question you get before you come up here is about fitness. What does fitness have to do with energy, right? Well, you need energy to do fitness, I understand that. But the question was, "Are you still working out, Governor?" (Laughter)
I said, "Of course. What do you think, because you're 63 -- I'm going to be next week 63 -- that you stop working out? Or because you're governor you stop working out, or because you have four kids you stop working out, or any of those kind of things? Or that you're in the middle of budget negotiations, you stop working out?" (Laughter)
No, not at all. As a matter of fact, I'm very happy that I work out every day for one hour. And I'm sure a lot of you are working out also, so you can relate to when you can brag a little bit, that I still -- just last week I lifted 375 pounds. (Applause) Yeah, 375 pounds. I lifted Rush Limbaugh out of the chair. (Laughter) So anyway -- I just thought I'd throw this in.
I love talking to your organization that has been around since what, 1889? You know who your first guest speaker was? Michael Peevey. (Laughter) I was just joking, Mike. He's saying, "I'm not that old." Of course you're not that old. I know that you're a young guy.
But anyway, it is great to be here today. My office gave me some talking points. As you can see, I'm off the talking points. (Laughter) And I'm not going to use them, because I looked at those talking points and I said to myself, "You know, I'm not going to give this kind of a stiff speech about energy." I think this is a much more casual audience where I can talk kind of off the top of my head.
But fist of all, let me just say that to me energy is just one of the most important things, because that's what we need to make the world go around. And so I have, of course, been always a fanatic about infrastructure and about building. I think that has something to do with that I built my body. I was into bodybuilding because I always was into building. So when I became governor, this is the first thing that came to my -- one of my big goals was to rebuild California. California hasn't really dealt with infrastructure in four decades. The last real visionary about infrastructure was Pat Brown and then Earl Warren before him. But since then, not much action has taken place in California.
So when I came in we made a plan and we created a vision of what California ought to look like and what we need to do. Now, of course, I didn't get all of those goals done; my vision was much bigger. But we got the legislature to agree and also the people to agree, to $60 billion in infrastructure which is, when you match it with private funds and with federal funds, it's like $150 billion. And we went to work on it to build more roads, to fix our levees and more schools, affordable housing and so on.
The other thing that was very important to me was, when we talk about infrastructure, is in energy. I think that California has gone through some very tough times when it comes to energy, with the blackouts that we have had and deregulations and so on. That was a bumpy road. So when I came in I brought everyone together and we, again together, created a vision, again something that you can't do by yourself. You have to have everyone be able to buy in and to work and walk in the same direction and be part of a team. As you know, the Lakers only won because they all played together really well. That's the only way you can move forward and that's how you can win, not everyone going in different directions.
So this is why we have been able to really make great strides forward here in California and in the last six years since I've been governor we haven't had any of the blackouts, we didn't have any of the problems. And also, we were very successful in creating every year more megawatts -- 1,000 more megawatts, sometimes even more than that -- and also reduce our energy use. I mean, if you think about it, that the first year when I came in we used 52,000 megawatts and since then we have never reached that high again, even though we have an increase in population and more businesses doing business in California.
So there are some really great things and it is because of conservation, which is a very important factor to this. Part of this whole goal of ours is to reduce energy use but again, build enough energy for the future, because we know we have an increase in population. Within the next 20 years they say we will be a 50 million population, so let's get ready for that.
But we also want to make sure that, while we are doing that, we want to create enough renewable energy so we don't increase the amount of usage of fossil fuels. We want to get off fossil fuels because also we know eventually that's going to run out. There's only so much around. Some people say within the next 50 years, some people say a little bit more but it's not wise to invest in something that eventually is going to be done.
So therefore I think California has been very actively looking at alternatives. That's why we have looked at solar, at wind, at geothermal, at biomass and all of those kind of things. And this is why also we set as one of the goals when I came in, that we said let's try to reach the 20 percent by the end of 2010 but then let's reach for a higher goal. We shouldn't get stuck with 20 percent. We can go to 33 percent; eventually we can go to 50 percent and even higher than that. So the goal, the new goal that we have, is 33 percent of renewable.
But as you know, that this is always easier said than done, to achieve those kind of goals but we all work together to get this done. It's, of course, a big challenge, because you have environmentalists that are big believers in renewable energy but you have then another group of environmentalists that don't believe in growth or at all disturbing the habitat out there. And so then you go all of a sudden now and you want to build in the Mojave Desert or somewhere else and then all of a sudden they say, "Well, we can't really build here because there is a squirrel." (Laughter)
And then you say, "What do you mean, there is a squirrel?"
They say, "Well, really there's not a squirrel but there could be a squirrel." (Laughter)
So I said, "Well, how do we deal with what could be?" And so you go through this whole thing.
But it is a very challenging thing because, you know, they are very concerned. That's what means a lot to them, so it's not like you can eliminate them or disregard them. You've got to respect that and you've got to go now and work together. But that slows things down.
We just recently went through that with the permits for the windmills and for a power line from the windmills, from that whole complex, where all of a sudden we were told that "There is a problem with that, we cannot give you the permits, we have to do more studies."
I said, "Studies about what?"
And they said, "Well, there is some indication -- some indication that the condor is moving a little bit from the west, from the ocean side, east. And within the next few years it could be that they are locating there where the windmills are."
So I said, "But you're saying there is no condor there now?"
"No, no, there's no condor there now."
I said, "Well, why would you want to slow down and then stop this project if there is no condor there flying into those windmills?"
"Well but there could be. When you study the movement of the condor, it could be."
I said, "Now, come on, guys. This is ridiculous now." So the bottom line is that you have those kind of obstacles that are being created, which makes it very difficult.
And I've had a conversation about that with President Obama when we had our first meeting. I said those will be the challenges, because he had this great vision and talked about how he wants to connect all the states -- which is a great idea -- every state, so that we can help each other. We don't have to create more energy necessarily. We always have to do that but how do we go and help each other so that sometimes the southern states don't need as much energy and we can give it to the north. Sometimes the northern states don't need as much energy and they can give it to the south.
But for that we need the transmission lines and we need to really upgrade our transmission lines. But that becomes, again, a big challenge because you have those forces there that don't like you to build or go over a mountain or go through the forest or do any of those kind of things and don't like this kind of progress. So those are the challenges we face.
But we are very happy that in California we have now gone through this kind of problems and challenges over the last few years and now we are having the Sunrise Transmission Line, the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Line and also the Alta-Oak Creek Wind Project. Those kind of things now have got the permits and we can move forward and start working on those and some of those things will be completed this year.
So we have made progress but that took, you know, sometimes four to six years to get those things done. So I just want to make everyone aware that we go through the challenges but we are way ahead of everyone else when it comes to renewable and our ambitions about renewable and so on.
And the important thing that we did was, we passed AB 32. Now, you have probably heard a lot about AB 32 because it's a very ambitious goal, again not only energy-wise but also environmentally, to reduce our greenhouse gases by 25 percent by the year 2020 and by an additional 85 percent by the year 2050. The important thing there is, again, we don't think just short-term, we think way ahead to 2050.
But that's what you need to do, even with infrastructure projects. When you talk about infrastructure for water -- to build the dams, to build the canal, to fix the Delta, all of those things -- that doesn't go from one year to the next. Those are all projects that take 20 years. The high-speed rail will take in California the next 20 years. So you have to plan way, way ahead.
And what AB 32, what that was and the regulations that we put in place, it really made the whole world look at California in a totally different way. Kind of, this is where we can invest for renewable energy, green technology and all of the goals that we set with our Tailpipe Emission Standards, the CAFE Standards and all those things where we inspired even the federal government to do the same thing. We are marching in a direction where the whole world is looking at us as a place to invest. And this is why we have now seen this enormous increase. Just since AB 32 passed in 2006 we have seen three times as much venture capital come into California, creating more jobs. As a matter of fact, when you talk about that even though we have a high unemployment rate but most of the jobs are being created in green technology. I mean, 10 times more than in any other industry. So those are the great benefits. More and more companies are coming here; car manufacturers that want to build electric cars, hydrogen cars and so on, are moving to California. More solar plants are trying to get the permits to build in the Mojave Desert and in other places, windmills and all of those things.
As a matter of fact, there are 270 companies that want to build now in California for renewable energy, if it is solar plants and other kinds of projects and they are asking for permits now. Fifty of them are applying for federal grant money. Twelve of them, if we are lucky, can start this year. That means $5 to $10 billion of federal stimulus money and that will be -- if all of those projects would be OK'd in California this year it would create 12,000 new jobs and this is in rural areas where we need the jobs. So as you can see, there is tremendous economic benefits.
And also benefits because of the reduction of greenhouse gases, which is a real problem and causes global warming, no matter what some of the people out there say that are stuck in the Stone Age. But the bottom line is, that's what it is. And also we have to plan because of that. So it has all of those benefits. And also, it creates jobs, it brings money to the state of California and so on.
But what does it do? What it does is that we want to rely less on fossil fuels
And this is something that we have had in California. We have had consistency.
And this is why we have to go and do everything that we can to continue with that consistency. Why? Because we have to be and all of you have to be an inspiration to the federal government to create that consistency, because the federal government is a disaster when it comes to energy policy. They haven't had an energy policy for decades.
We all remember when Jimmy Carter came in with some brilliant ideas about solar and about doing research and exploration of shale oil and wind and all of those kind of things. The next administration came in and said well, wait a minute. A barrel of oil is down to $10. Why are we futzing around with all this stuff over here when we can just buy the oil? And the policy was out the window. So this is not consistency, so people don't know, should we invest in this or not invest in it? They don't know. They're confused.
And right now, several decades later -- and I've watched all this since I've been in this country, I can tell you -- it is really amazing that today the federal government still doesn't have a policy. They have no idea how much they're going to rely on more nuclear plants, what is their portfolio, their goal when it comes to renewable. No idea. No one can answer that question, how much should we reduce in greenhouse gases, what should our standards be, what kind of cars do we want 10 years, 20 years down the road? None of those things anyone can answer.
And this is a disaster because the rest of the world, European countries, have a goal. Even in 1976 when they started changing, when they saw the oil crisis. The Europeans stayed on course even though the oil price went down. And now, 30 years later, you see the great work that is being done in Germany, in Spain, in Portugal, Denmark and all of those European countries, England that reduced their greenhouse gases and rely less on fossil fuels and all this. So there is great work that is being done all over the world. Even the Chinese are beating us now when it comes to green technology and relying more on renewable.
So we've got to get our act together now, because the federal government can't get their act together, which is not surprising, because great things, great movements, never start on the national level. They always start on the local level, on the grassroots level.
And that's where you come in and that's why I was interested to talk to you. You all have to work together in your local communities, in your states, to create what we are doing here in California -- and a lot of your are doing it already also in your states -- and to create a certain momentum that goes up to the level of the federal government and put enough pressure on the federal government that that's what the nation wants. We want to have an energy policy, we want to have a policy that relies less on fossil fuels. We want to have an energy policy that relies less on foreign products. We want to have an energy policy that reduces the greenhouse gases. We have to have certain goals. That's what we should shoot for.
So that is where you come in and this is why I need your help on that, because we can move the country forward but it has to be done from a grassroots level, like all great movements have. So for us, working together is the most important thing. I think that we can get there but we have to pressure on the federal government.
Like I said, we are going to get a lot of the permits this year and I hope that the federal government will work with us. So far they have done everything, if you talk about Secretary Salazar, who has been a jewel working with us on all of those issues, his entire office, his staff, everyone has been great. So we have had really good luck by having the point people there. So we're going to continue working in that direction.
So it's great to have all of you here and I hope that you enjoy yourselves. It would be wrong for me as governor not to ask all of you to stay here another week, because we need your money because we have a budget problem. (Laughter)
So thank you very much, thank you all and have a good time with your stay. (Applause)