UM… NEVER? How States Will Hit 100 Percent Clean Energy.

“For the country as a whole it shows the laboratory effect of having states take the lead on this issue,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. “As Hawaii and California take the lead, it will provide examples of how it can be done for other states, both good and bad.”

Hawaii passed its 100 percent renewable electricity mandate with a 2045 target two years ago. The Aloha State at the time had no blueprint for how to make it happen. Much of it remains in the planning stage, though leaders argue it’s achievable.

“We are ahead of schedule on our path to 100 percent renewable energy goal,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) said at a clean energy summit this summer. “We are making significant progress toward getting off of fossil fuel and into clean energy, more aggressively than any other community in the United States.”

The (unwitting?) hat tip to federalism was nice, but codified wishful thinking is still wishful thinking.

Flashback: Road to renewable energy is filled with potholes of ‘magic thinking.’

And: Renewable energy is not as clean as you think.

And finally: City Pledges for ‘100% Renewable Energy’ Are 99% Misleading.