The Daily Delegate

By: Jake DiMaria

Forum Media

The Energy and Public Utilities committee has been working on a bill declaring to replace standard energy in public schools with solar energy. To execute this bill it would cost about 2.4 billion dollars in the course of 7 years. The money would be supplied from the general fund for schools, which is provided with about 225 billion dollars per year. Considering they need 2.4 billion dollars over 7 years, they would need to take out around 300 million per year. The benefits of doing this are that solar panels are immensely better for the environment than typical gas powered items. This is because solar panels get energy directly from the sunlight, which reduces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that are released into the atmosphere. On top of that, solar energy is completely renewable, while fossil fuels are limited resources that will be lessened over time. To put all of this into perspective, an acre of solar panels would save nearly 400,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. So imagine the impact it would have on the environment if all public schools had solar panels. Considering the substantial improvement this would generate, I think the Energy and Public Utilities committees bill would be magnificent for all of California.