Earth Equity News

Environmental Groups Oppose California Renewables Initiative. By Margot Roosevelt, LATimes, April 8, 2008. "University of Phoenix founder John Sperling and his son, Peter [senior VP of the Apollo Group], are backing a ballot initiative that would force the state to more than quadruple its production of solar, wind and other alternative energy sources by 2025. But the state's major alternative-energy companies and environmental groups say the Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008 is poorly drafted and riddled with loopholes, and they plan to oppose it... 'John Sperling is genuinely well-intentioned and wants to do something about global warming,' said Ralph Cavanagh, an expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council who met with the 87-year-old billionaire. 'But the initiative was put together by people who didn't know what they were doing'... 'The initiative locks all the dysfunctional complexity into place and would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to change it,' said V. John White... of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies."