Bill Update

A number of energy bills progressed this week, including renewables legislation and controversial measures that would refinance Pacific Gas & Electric?s $2.2 billion regulatory asset and create an Edison-flavored deregulation-lite energy market. Senator Byron Sher?s (D-Stanford) SB 1478, which would advance the 20 percent renewables portfolio standard by seven years?from 2017 to 2010?and create a green power trading program, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 7-3 vote May 20 (see Circuit , April 30, 2004). The Assembly Appropriations Committee passed on a 16-5 vote AB 2006 by Assembly speaker Fabian N??ez (D-Los Angeles). The legislation, known as the Edison bill, would require utilities to conduct competitive bids for nonutility generation with the utilities guaranteed cost recovery (see Circuit , April 23, 2004). It is expected to face stiff opposition in the Senate. SB 772 by Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), which would lower PG&E ratepayers? bankruptcy costs by several hundred million dollars through creation of a dedicated rate component, passed out of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee on a 5-0 vote (see Circuit , May 14, 2004). Munis continued to object to being required to bear part of the bankruptcy tab. Bowen?s SB 1624, which would allow the Office of Ratepayer Advocates to sue the California Public Utilities Commission, was removed from the Senate Appropriations Committee?s suspense file and passed on an 8-5 vote. It is expected to be taken up on the Senate floor next week. Assemblymember Mark Leno?s (D-San Francisco) bill that would prohibit bankrupt investor-owned utilities from paying retention bonuses to company executives advanced, following a 55-22 vote on the Assembly floor (see Circuit , April 16, 2004). The Senate approved on a 22-13 vote a bill by Senator Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) that would require new residential developments of 25 units or more to include photovoltaic systems on an undesignated percentage of new homes (see Circuit , May 7, 2004). AB 2803 by Assemblymember Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood), which would require the California Public Utilities Commission to include an assessment of the economic impacts of its decisions, was placed on the Assembly?s consent agenda and passed. Another Horton measure, AB 2499, which would impose resource-adequacy requirements on new public power agencies, received a 12-6 vote in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Senator Tom Torlakson?s (D-Antioch) SB 1201, which would allow the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District to buy power from a municipal utility under the same preferential terms it currently has with PG&E, passed the Senate on a 38-0 vote.

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