Legislative
Center
EPIC monitors and conducts analysis on key energy-related legislation affecting the San Diego region and California. EPIC's Legislative Center provides a listing and summary of pending energy-related legislation.
2009 California Energy-Related Legislation (Updated 10-13-09)
Chaptered Bills
The following bills have been signed into law by the Governor. Click on the bill numbers to go to the actual bill site.
AB 162 (Ruskin) Electricity Disclosure Requirements for Retail Electricity Suppliers
This bill would make several changes to existing requirements that require electrical utility to disclose the sources of their electricity, including: defining the term "unspecified sources of power" to mean electricity generated that is not traceable to specific generation sources by any auditable contract trail or equivalent that provides commercial verification that the electricity source claimed has been sold once, and only once, to a retail consumer, define the "retail sales", and enumerating specific fuel types and energy sources that are required to be disclosed by the retail supplier as a percentage of annual sales, changing the reporting requirements from quarterly to annually and amend other details regarding disclosures and eliminate certain reporting requirements.
AB 210 (Hayashi) Local Government Green Building Standards
Existing law authorizes a city or county to make changes or modifications in the requirements contained in the provisions published in the California Building Standards Code and other specified regulations. This bill would specify that the requirements and regulations that a city or county is authorized to change or modify includes, but is not limited to, green building standards. Further, existing law provides that specified building standards do not limit the authority of a city, county, or city and county to establish more restrictive building standards. This bill would provide that the adopted and established standards include, but are not limited to, green building standards.
AB 474 (Blumenfield) Modifications to AB 811 Financing Provisions
This bill would expand the provisions of AB 811 financing to authorize the legislative body of any public agency to designate an area within which authorized city officials property owners can enter into contractual assessments to finance the installation of water efficiency improvements that are permanently fixed to real property.
AB 531 (Saldana) Exemption for Energy Consumption Data Disclosure
In California on and after January 1, 2010, building owners or operators will be required to disclose the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager benchmarking data and rating to a prospective buyer, lessee of the entire building, or lender that would finance the entire building. The bill instead would require the owner or operator to disclose the benchmarking data and rating to a prospective buyer, lessee of the entire building, or lender that would finance the entire building based on a schedule of compliance established by the CA Energy Commission.
AB 758 (Skinner) Existing Building Efficiency
This bill would: require the CA Energy Commission (CEC), by March 1, 2010, and subject to certain requirements, to establish a regulatory proceeding to develop a comprehensive program to achieve greater energy savings in the state's existing residential and commercial building stock; require the CA Public Utilities Commission (PUC), by March 1, 2010, to open a proceeding to investigate the ability of electrical corporations to provide energy efficiency financing options to their customers to implement the comprehensive program developed by the CEC pursuant to this act; require the PUC, by January 1, 2011, after consultation with the CEC, to authorize an electrical corporation to provide a targeted number of low- or no-cost energy efficiency audits each calendar year; and, require a local publicly owned utility to be responsible for implementing an energy efficiency program that recognizes the Legislature's intent to encourage energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions in existing residential and commercial buildings.
AB 881 (Huffman) Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority
his bill would, among other things, create the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority and require that the Authority be governed by the same board as the Sonoma County Transportation Authority.
AB 920 (Huffman) Credit for Net Surplus Electricity From Solar and Wind Distributed Generation
Among other things, this bill would: require the ratemaking authority of an electric utility to adopt, by January 1, 2011, a net surplus electricity compensation valuation to compensate a net surplus customer-generator, for the value of net surplus electricity generated by an eligible customer-generator and delivered to the grid that is in excess of the amount of electricity that is delivered from the grid to the eligible customer-generator; require the electric utility to offer a standard contract or tariff to eligible customer-generators that includes compensation for the value of net surplus electricity; require the electric utility, upon an affirmative election by the eligible customer-generator to receive service pursuant to this contract or tariff, to either: (1) provide net surplus electricity compensation for any net surplus electricity generated in the 12-month period, or (2) allow the eligible customer-generator to apply the net surplus electricity as a credit for kilowatthours subsequently supplied by the electric utility to the surplus customer-generator; provide that upon adoption of the net surplus electricity compensation rate and the eligible customer-generator electing to receive net surplus electricity compensation, any renewable energy credit, for net surplus electricity belongs to the electric utility purchasing the electricity and that net surplus electricity counts toward the electric utility's renewables portfolio standard purchasing requirements.
AB 1031 (Blumenfield) Eligibility for AB 2466 (2008) Net Surplus Electricity Credit
This bill would change the eligibility for which entities can apply surplus renewable energy generation to other accounts by authorizing a “campus,” defined as an individual community college campus, University of California campus, or California State University campus, to receive a bill credit to be applied to a designated benefiting account for electricity exported to the electrical grid by an eligible renewable generating facility.
AB 1085 (Mendoza) CA Air Resources Board Regulatory Process
This bill would require CARB to make available to the public all technical information used in the development of a proposed regulation, or that is the rationale behind any proposed regulation, before the comment period for any regulation proposed for adoption by CARB.
AB 1110 (Fuentes) Revised Definition of Cogeneration
This bill would: authorize the commission and the CA Air Resources Board (CARB) to treat advanced electrical distributed generation technology as cogeneration and would make certain existing limitations upon gas rates and surcharges charged cogenerators applicable to an advanced electrical distributed generation technology; and, prohibit placing alternative fuel capability requirements upon gas customers that use gas for purposes of cogeneration applicable to a generator using advanced electrical distributed generation technology. These provisions would not apply to an advanced electrical distributed generation technology that is first operational at a site on and after January 1, 2014.
AB 1318 (V. Manuel Perez) Emission Credits for Electrical Generation in South Coast Air Quality Management District
This bill would: require the executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District to transfer emission reduction credits for certain pollutants from the south coast district’s internal emission credit accounts to eligible electrical generating facilities, as described: exempt from CEQA certain actions of the district undertaken pursuant to the bill; require the State Air Resources Board to prepare and submit to the Governor and the
Legislature a report that evaluates the electrical system reliability needs of the South Coast Air Basin and recommends the most effective and efficient means of meeting those needs while ensuring compliance with state and federal law. The provisions of this bill related to emissions credits would be repealed on January 1, 2012.
SB 17 (Padilla) Smart Grid Deployment Plan
This bill would: require the CPUC, by July 1, 2010, to determine the requirements for a smart grid deployment plan consistent with the provisions of this bill and federal law;
require that the smart grid improve overall efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of electrical system operations, planning, and maintenance; require each electrical corporation, by July 1, 2011, to develop and submit a smart grid deployment plan to the CPUC for approval; authorize a smart grid deployment plan that is adopted to provide for deployment of smart grid products, technologies, and services by entities other than electrical corporations; authorize smart grid technologies to be deployed in an incremental manner to maximize the benefit to ratepayers and to achieve the benefits of smart grid technology, would authorize the CPUC to modify or adjust the bill’s requirements for an electrical corporation with fewer than 100,000 service connections as
individual circumstances merit; require the CPUC to report, by January 1, 2011, and
by January 1 of each year thereafter, to the Governor and the Legislature on the commission’s recommendations for a smart grid, the plans and deployment of smart grid technologies by the state’s electrical corporations, and the costs and benefits to
ratepayers; require a local publicly owned (municipal) electric utility to develop by July 1, 2011 a smart grid deployment plan consistent with the policies set forth in federal law.
SB 32 (Negrete McLeod) Renewable Electric Generation Feed-in Tariffs
Among other things, this bill would: require an electrical corporation to file with the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) a standard tariff for the electricity purchased from an electric generation facility that is located writhin the electrical corporation service territory; require that the electric generation facility have an effective capacity of not more than 3 megawatts; delete the provision that the facility be located on property owned or under the control of the customer; require that the tariff provide for a payment for every kilowatthour of electricity purchased from an electric generation facility for a period of 10, 15, or 20 years; require that the payment be the market price referent established by the commission pursuant to the renewables portfolio standard program and would require the price to include all current and anticipated environmental compliance costs; authorize the CPUC to adjust the payment rate to reflect the value of the electricity on a time-of-delivery basis; require an electrical corporation to make the tariff available on a first-come-first-served basis until either the corporation meets its proportionate share of a statewide cap of 750 megawatts cumulative rated generation capacity served under the tariffs adopted pursuant to the requirements of the bill or the electrical corporation has reached or exceeds its above-market cost limitation (this requirement would be contingent upon the enacting of SB 14); provide that the electricity purchased from an electric generation facility counts toward meeting the electrical corporation’s renewables portfolio standard and that the physical generating capacity of the electric generation facility counts toward
meeting the electrical corporation’s resource adequacy requirements; provide that an owner or operator of an electric generation facility that received ratepayer-funded incentives and participated in a net metering program prior to January 1, 2010, would be eligible for the tariff; and, require a local publicly owned (municipal) electric utility that sells electricity at retail to 75,000 or more customers to adopt and implement a tariff for electricity purchased from an electric generation facility meeting certain size, deliverability, and interconnection requirements until a utility meets its proportionate share of the total statewide capacity for local publicly owned electricity utilities of 750 MW is reached.
SB 104 (Oropeza) California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Definition of Greenhouse Gases
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 defines greenhouse gases to include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. This bill would also include nitrogen trifluoride in that definition.
SB 176 (Simitian) End Date of Donated Electricity Provision
This bill would extend the repeal date of a provision of existing law that authorizes a nonprofit charitable organization to acquire electric commodity service through a direct transaction with an electric service provider, until January 1, 2015, if electric commodity service is donated free of charge without compensation.
SB 391 (Liu) California Transportation Plan
This bill would require DOT to update the California Transportation Plan (CTP) by January 1, 2012, and every 5 years thereafter; require the CTP to address how the state will achieve maximum feasible emissions reductions in order to attain a statewide reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
SB 412 (Kehoe) Self-generation Incentive Program: Inclusion of Non-Solar Technologies
This bill would require the CPUC to require the collection of funding for the self-generation incentive program for non-solar distributed generation resources through December 31, 2011; require that combined heat and power units meet certain efficiency and emissions requirements, including the greenhouse gases emission performance standard, to receive incentives; require the PUC to ensure that distributed generation resources are made available in the program for all ratepayers; prohibit recovery of the costs of the program from ratepayers that participate in the California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) program; delete the authorization for the PUC, in administering the program, to include other ultraclean and low-emission distributed generation technologies; and, delete the current requirement that the CA Energy Commission, by November 1, 2008, and in consultation with the PUC and CA Air Resources Board, to evaluate the costs and benefits of providing ratepayer subsidies for renewable and fossil fuel ultraclean and low-emission distributed generation.
SB 488 (Pavley) Energy Consumption Comparison on Bills
This bill would require each investor owned and municipal electrical and gas utility having an energy usage disclosure program to report to the CPUC the nature of the utility’s program and the energy savings resulting from that program on or before March 15, 2010, or within 90 days of having collected a year’s worth of data, and annually thereafter until March 15, 2014.
SB 581 (Leno) Hetch Hetchy Renewable Energy Generation
This bill would: authorize the City and County of San Francisco to elect to designate specific renewable electricity generation facilities as Hetch Hetchy Water and Power (HHWP) at-site renewable generation and HHWP remote renewable generation; authorize the City and County of San Francisco to elect to designate specific renewable electricity generation facilities or a portion of specific renewable electricity generation facilities as HHWP remote renewable generation to supply electricity to qualifying remote load by designating those facilities to be served by HHWP remote renewable generation; require that PG&E accept any electricity exported to the grid by HHWP remote renewable generation, up to the amount of electricity being used during the corresponding time period by the qualifying remote load, and to treat the electricity accepted as behind the meter generation that offsets the electrical usage of qualifying remote load; and, delete the existing requirement that where the separate or remote sites are outside the City and County of San Francisco, they be located within 20 miles of the City and County of San Francisco or within 20 miles of a HHWP remote renewable generation facility.
SB 605 (Ashburn) CEQA Exemption for Biogas Pipelines
This bill would provide that until January 1, 2013, for purposes of a CEQA exemption, “pipeline” also means a pipeline located in Fresno, Kern, Kings, or Tulare County, that is used to transport biogas, as the bill would define that term, and that meets the existing requirements for the exemption and all local, state, and federal laws.
SB 626 (Kehoe) Electrical Infrastructure Plug-in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles
This bill would require the CA Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the CA Energy Commission, the CA Air Resources Board, electrical corporations, and the motor vehicle industry, to evaluate policies to develop infrastructure sufficient to overcome any barriers to the widespread deployment and use of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and, by January 1, 2011, to adopt rules that address specified matter.
SB 695 (Kehoe) Residential Time-of-Use Electricity Rates and Direct Access
Among other things, this bill would: prohibit the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) from requiring or permitting an electrical corporation to employ mandatory default time-variant pricing for residential customers prior to January 1, 2013; prohibit mandatory or default time-variant pricing, without bill protection, for residential customers prior to January 1, 2014; prohibit mandatory or default real-time pricing, without bill protection, for residential customers prior to January 1, 2020; require the CPUC to establish the CARE program to provide assistance to low-income electric and gas customers with annual household incomes that are no greater than 200% of the federal poverty guideline levels, and require that the cost of the program, with respect to electrical corporations, be
recovered on an equal cents-per-kilowatthour basis from all classes of customers that were subject to the surcharge that funded the CARE program on January 1, 2008; require that electrical corporations, in administering the specified energy efficiency and weatherization programs, target energy efficiency and solar programs to upper-tier and multifamily customers in a manner that will result in long-term permanent reductions in electricity usage at the dwelling units and develop programs that specifically target nonprofit affordable housing providers, including programs that promote weatherization
of existing dwelling units and replacement of inefficient appliances; delete the prohibition that the CPUC not increase the electricity charges in effect on February 1, 2001, for residential customers for existing baseline quantities or usage by those customers of up to 130% of then existing baseline quantities; authorize the CPUC to increase the rates
charged residential customers for electricity usage up to 130% of the baseline quantities by the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index from the prior year plus 1%, but not less than 3% and not more than 5% per year; delete the existing suspension
of direct transactions in the Water Code that was adopted during the energy crisis of 2000–01, and would instead require the commission to authorize direct transactions subject to a reopening schedule that commences immediately and will phase in over a
period of not less than 3 years and not more than 5 years, and subject to an annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit established for each electrical corporation; continue the suspension of direct transactions except as expressly authorized, until the Legislature, by statute, repeals the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions.
SB 827 (Wright) South Coast Air Quality Management District Emissions Credits
In a recent court decision (Natural Resources Defense Council v. South Coast Air Quality Management District (Super. Ct. Los Angeles County, 2007, No.BS 110792), the superior court found the promulgation of certain the South Coast Air Quality Management District's rules related to emissions offset credits to be in violation of CEQA. This bill would authorize the district to issue permits under specified circumstances, notwithstanding this court decision. The provisions of the bill would be repealed on May 1, 2012.
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Vetoed Bills
The Governor vetoed the following bills. Click on the bill numbers to go to the actual bill site.
AB 3 (V. Manuel Perez) Renewable Energy Workforce Readiness Program (Veto Message)
This bill would require the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB), by July 1, 2010, in consultation with the Green Collar Jobs Council (GCJC), to establish a Renewable Energy Workforce Readiness Initiative to ensure green collar career placement and advancement opportunities within California’s renewable energy generation, manufacturing, construction, installation, maintenance, and operation sectors.
AB 42 (Blakeslee) 3-D Imaging Survey of Diablo Canyon Vicinity
This bill would require Pacific Gas and Electric Company to conduct seismic fault studies or surveys in areas at or near the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in order to maintain reliable operation of the electrical grid and mitigate impacts to customer rates that could result from a seismic event.
AB 64 (Krekorian) Modifications to RPS (Veto Message)
This bill would make the following changes to the RPS Program: make conforming changes to terms used in the Renewable Energy Resources Program statutes that would be made by SB 14 of the 2009–10 Regular Session; delete an existing requirement that the PUC adopt flexible rules for compliance for retail seller; require the CPUC to direct each electrical corporation to prepare a renewable energy procurement plan that includes certain matter and to review and update the plan; require that the renewable energy procurement plan be proposed, reviewed, and adopted by the CPUC pursuant to the general procurement plan process; would require that an electrical corporation’s proposed procurement plan include a showing that the electrical corporation will, in order to fulfill its unmet resource needs, procure resources from eligible renewable energy resources in an amount sufficient to meet its procurement targets pursuant to the RPS program; authorize an electrical corporation to apply to the CPUC for approval to construct, own, and operate an eligible renewable energy resource and require the PUC to approve the application if certain conditions are met, until corporation owned and operated resources provide 8.5% of the corporation’s anticipated retail sales.
In addition, the bill would make changes to the certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN), including requiring the CPUC to: issue a decision on an application
for a certificate of public convenience and necessity within 18 months of the filing of a completed application under certain circumstances; deem new transmission facilities necessary to the provision of electric service if the CPUC finds that new transmission facilities are reasonably necessary or appropriate to facilitate achievement of the renewables portfolio standard; provide assurance of the eligibility for recovery in retail rates of any increase in transmission costs incurred by an electrical corporation resulting
from the construction of transmission facilities in certain circumstances and to allow recovery in retail rates of any increase in transmission costs if not approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission if the CPUC determines the costs were prudently incurred pursuant to a specified law.
The bill also would: require the Department of Fish and Game to establish an internal division with the primary purpose of performing comprehensive planning and environmental compliance services with priority given to projects involving the building of eligible renewable energy resources.
with the primary purpose of performing comprehensive planning and
environmental compliance services with priority given to projects
involving the building of eligible renewable energy resources."
This bill would: authorize the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB), to accept any revenues, moneys, grants, goods, or services from federal and state entities, philanthropic organizations, and other sources, to be used for purposes relating to the administration and implementation of the strategic initiative; and, require that all moneys and revenues received pursuant to those provisions be deposited into the Green Collar Jobs Account and authorize the Employment Development Department to expend those moneys and revenues for purposes related to the administration and implementation of the strategic initiative, and for the award of workforce training grants implementing the strategic initiative.
AB 1404 (De Leon) Greenhouse Gas Offsets Limits (Veto Message)
This bill would: require the CA Air Resources Board (CARB), if it allows the use of market-based compliance mechanisms, to limit the use of compliance offsets that meet specific criteria to no more than 10% of the greenhouse gas emission reductions expected from market mechanisms during the compliance period; require CARB to apply the limit as a percentage of each regulated party’s reported emissions in a compliance period; require CARB to impose a an administrative fee pursuant to the fee authority described above for deposit into the fund to pay for expenses related to state board administration of the compliance offset program, upon appropriation by the Legislature.
SB 14 (Simitian) Modifications to RPS and Transmissions Siting Procedures (Veto Message)
This bill would, among other things amend the California Renewable Portfolio Program by requiring the CPUC to require retail sellers to procure the following percentages of electricity from eligible renewable energy resources by the following dates: (A) Until December 31, 2012, the same percentage as actually achieved by the retail seller during 2009; (B) 20% by December 31, 2013; (C) 25% by December 31, 2016; and (D) 33% by December 31, 2020
SB 279 (Hancock) Community Facilities Districts (Veto Message)
This bill would amend the Mello-Roos Act to allow a community facilities district to finance and refinance the acquisition, installation, and improvement of energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy improvements to or on real property and in buildings. It also would authorize a separate procedure for establishing a community facilities district where the district initially consists solely of territory proposed for annexation to the community facilities district in the future and would provide an alternate procedure for incurring bonded indebtedness for community facility districts established in this manner.
other Bills
The legislature is expected to act on these bills in the 2009 extraordinary session.
AB 33 (Villines) CA Department of Energy
This bill, among other things, would: abolish the CA Energy Commission and the Electricity Oversight Board; create the Department of Energy, headed by a Secretary of Energy, and would create the California Energy Board and the Office of Energy Market Oversight within the department; provide that the secretary would be appointed by, and hold office at the pleasure of, the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate; require the Governor to appoint the initial secretary by January 31, 2010; provide that the California Energy Board consists of the following members: the Secretary of Energy who would be the chair of the board, 4 members of the public with qualifications, appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate, the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, and the president of the California Public Utilities Commission; vest the Office of Energy Market Oversight with the powers, duties, responsibilities, obligations, liabilities, and jurisdiction of the Electricity Oversight Board and add to the functions of the office; vest the new department and the California Energy Board with the powers, duties, responsibilities, obligations, liabilities, jurisdiction, and rights and privileges of the CA Energy Commission; transfer the jurisdiction over the certification of thermal and grant jurisdiction over certification of specified solar nonthermal, powerplants to the California Energy Board; transfer all responsibilities with respect to the certification of certain electric transmission facilities from the CPUC to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the California Energy Board.
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