USD School of Law's Energy Policy Initiatives Center Mentioned in InsideClimate News

USD School of Law's Energy Policy Initiatives Center Mentioned in InsideClimate News

San Jose (July 29, 2016) – USD School of Law's Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) was mentioned in an InsideClimate News article today reporting on California's fast track solar permits which will allow for a greener energy source faster and cheaper. 

Spurred by a recent state law, hundreds of California communities have streamlined their permit process for small residential solar systems over the past year, some bringing it down to a single day. Some cities have also fast-tracked inspections to within a few days of permit approvals. The outcome? The state's biggest cities are now processing and signing off on hundreds of these solar projects each month.

San Jose, for example, streamlined its permit review and approval process last August and has since approved more than 4,500 residential rooftop solar permits. That's a nearly 600 percent increase over the previous year, when San Jose, California's third-largest city, permitted a mere 661.

At least 386 of California's 540 jurisdictions have already adopted streamlined permitting, and many more are still developing their process, according to a recently released review conducted by the University of San Diego School of Law's Energy Policy Initiatives Center. Not all of the cities have same-day permits and inspections, but San Jose is far from alone.

Read the full story below. 

About the University of San Diego School of Law

The University of San Diego (USD) School of Law is recognized for the excellence of its faculty, depth of its curriculum, and strength of its clinical programs. Each year, USD educates more than 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 81 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 23rd worldwide in all-time faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, nonprofit, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.