David Roland-Holst, a UC Berkeley economics professor and the study’s author, assumes aggressive state legislation meant to check greenhouse gas emissions would produce a huge new clean energy market and spur innovation to better capture renewable resources.

Roland-Holst stated that his study is the first to use a wide-ranging economic forecasting tool developed at UC Berkeley to study the capable effects of clean energy on the whole California economy.

The study emphasized several different scenarios of renewable energy use in California over the coming four decades.

If the state were to go on with its present energy demand and dependence on fossil fuels, the study assumed, California would have to import more fuel, exposing the economy to less stable costs.

On the other hand, using clean sources for half the state’s electric power while increasing efficiency by 1.5 percent each year would create 500,000 new jobs with a $100 billion payroll, the study discovered. The speed with which California and the country can attain these aggressive clean energy goals was part of a debate Wednesday in San Francisco between Chevron Corp. CEO Dave O’Reilly and Carl Pope, executive director of The Sierra Club.

O’Reilly said that he does not believe clean energy sources will permit the U.S. to lower its carbon emissions beyond 20-25 percent by 2050. Pope said he believes emerging and still undiscovered renewable energy technologies will allow for an 80-90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the same year.

Meanwhile, a distinct study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts on Wednesday indicated that the nation, led by California, was already seeing the economic advantages of an upcoming clean energy industry.

Roland-Holst said California’s passage of AB32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act, has created the environment for a booming clean energy industry. The law looks to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the state 30 percent by 2020 President Barack Obama has said he wants the U.S. to derive 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025. Congress is currently mulling legislation that would put a national clean energy need in place for all electrical utilities.