Drought hurting California’s clean energy goals

As California faces its third year of drought, its fight against global warming may take a ht.

Dams are one of the state’s main sources of power generation without emitting greenhouse gases, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports, many of those reservoirs are low.

{mosads}The drought is forcing utility companies to turn to other energy sources however, meaning more power will have to come from power plants burning nature gas.

The impact is already being seen. California’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 1.7 percent in 2012 for the first time in years.

And if the drought continues it could prevent California from reaching its climate change goals.

“If there’s less hydro, the power has to come from somewhere. You have to burn more gas, and that costs more money, all things considered,” Victor Niemeyer of Electric Power Research Institute told the Chronicle.