Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle signed a bill this week making the Pacific island state the first in the nation to require all new homes to have solar water heaters.
The bill states that building permits will not be issued for single-family homes that do not have solar water heaters–with a few exceptions for houses in forested areas with little direct sunlight.
Gov.
Lingle also signed three other bills to increase renewable energy.
Two of the bills provide renewable energy project developers with assistance with the permitting process and the third bill allows the state Department of Agriculture to offer a new class of loans to encourage farmers to produce alternative sources of energy.
In Delaware, Governor Ruth Ann Minner paved the way for carbon emissions caps on power plants by signing S.B. 263. The bill is associated with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which Delaware and nine other Northeastern states are a part of.
The initiative creates a regional cap-and-trade system that goes into effect next year and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants 10% by 2019.
Under the initiative, emissions credits will be sold at auctions, with buyers permitted to trade credits if their smokestacks release less than limits set in the initiative.
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