Assembly Bills on the Senate?s Summer Plate

A handful of Assembly energy bills advanced to the Senate before the beginning of the June legislative deadline. These include: AB 380: Extends to direct-access providers and community-choice aggregators a mandated 15-17 percent supply cushion above projected peak demand. Currently, the California Public Utilities Commission?s requirement applies only to investor-owned utilities. The bill, by speaker of the Assembly Fabian N??ez (D-Los Angeles), passed the Assembly on a 74-0 vote. AB 1165: Attempts to link and coordinate the California Energy Commission?s power plant siting decisions with related permitting determinations by local agencies. The bill, authored by Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee chair Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), passed on a 78-0 vote. It?s set to be heard by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee June 20. AB 1182: Aims to improve the public?s access to informal California Public Utilities Commission filings via electronic filing. The bill by Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), passed on a 73-0 vote, specifically strives to improve efficiency and reduce reproduction costs of filings other than rulings and decisions. AB 1365: Makes it a state priority to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2010 and 10 percent by 2020. The legislation by Ira Ruskin (D-Los Altos) passed on a 48-30 vote the day before the governor announced his plan to reduce the impact of human-induced climate change. AB 1362: Advances the renewables portfolio standards? 20 percent green mandate for investor-owned utilities by seven years to 2010, and extends the mandate to other energy providers?except public power agencies. The bill by Levine, passed on a 50-29 vote, would also create a renewable energy credit program to help San Diego Gas & Electric meet the RPS. AB 1576: Encourages the repowering of old plants?think NRG?s El Segundo and Duke Energy?s Morro Bay plants?by requiring the CPUC to allow utilities to recover the costs of contracts with upgraded projects. The bill by N??ez passed on a 76-0 vote. AB 154: Accelerates deploying photovoltaics without raising rates and increases the net-metering cap from 0.5 percent of a utility?s total load to 1.5 percent. Levine?s legislation also sends all public-goods fund increases to the newly created Solar Energy Peak Procurement Program. It passed on a 51-27 vote. AB 1632: Requires the Energy Commission to consider the impact of a major earthquake on the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant and other electricity generation facilities. The bill by Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) passed on a 76-0 vote. AB 1723: Requires the Energy Commission to submit to the CPUC an assessment of the utilities? supply and demand forecasts, including an analysis of whether the three utilities are buying load for customers planning to split from their service. Passed on a 74-0 vote, the bill by Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) provides a public and independent look at the three utilities? load forecasts. Two noteworthy bills did not make the cut. They are: AB 133: Would have required the CEC to set efficiency standards for clean distributed generation. There were concerns its language would jeopardize the installation of photovoltaic systems, which are considered less efficient than other distributed-generation systems. AB 1009: Would have revived a core-noncore market. Keith Richman?s (R-Northridge) bill was shot down in the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee at the end of April ( Circuit , April 29, 2005).

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Assembly Bills on the Senate?s Summer Plate

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