Hawaii, with lots of sun but no oil, might soon be a step ahead of other states in the race toward clean energy.

A bill to require all new homes to have solar water heaters passed the Legislature on Thursday and now goes to Gov. Linda Lingle, who has made reducing the state’s fossil-fuel dependency a central goal of her administration.

The bill goes beyond the rebates and tax credits that other states and cities are offering, and comes at a time when Congress is considering pulling the plug on tax credits for investment in wind and solar energy that are due to expire in December.

Yeesh, say conservatives: a heavy-handed government mandate to go green. But the bill is a prod to developers that will make people save money — cutting about $1,000 a year from the electricity bill of an average home on Kauai, according to the Sierra Club of Hawaii, a major backer of the bill.

For a state that has the nation’s highest electricity rates and has also been called “the Saudi Arabia of sun,” this move seems only natural.

(Source: New York Times)