California was close. Just how close? It depends on whom you ask. Some would say that the California Legislature was only a single roll call away from sending to the Governor legislation expanding the state’s renewable electricity mandate to 33% (SB 722).

But the Legislature missed the midnight deadline by four minutes, thus throwing away a year’s worth of work, negotiations and politics. Others would say that it is unclear how close California really was because the exact contents and implications of SB 722 were not really known and securing that final vote was never a sure thing. Also, it was not known if enough changes had been made to satisfy the Governor’s requirements laid out in last year’s veto message of a similar bill, SB 14.