Whether greenhouse gas pollution is blowing over the ocean from Asia or generated in California was the $120,000 question at the California Energy Commission May 7. The commission granted the University of California, Davis, the funds to study the source of the “black carbon” in the state’s snowpack in the Sierra. While commissioners were concerned about the political implications of the grant as well as the ability to discern the source of greenhouse gases, staff said university researchers could “fingerprint” the source of greenhouse gases to help “better understand how climate is changing.” In other news, the commissioners discussed, but didn’t vote on their plans for advising the California Air Resources Board on whether to institute a cap-and-trade system, or allocate or auction credits for greenhouse gas reductions, per state law AB 32. Commissioners said they are concerned where the greenhouse gas reductions would actually come from. A $2 million contract that vets smart grid technology was awarded to New Power Technologies. The grant is for a pilot project by Southern California Edison--in which the utility is providing about $700,000 of its own funds. The commission expects Edison to share the information it discovers with other investor-owned utilities. Utilities are spending billions of dollars to install smart meters, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. So far, each utility has its own technology, however, and the information gathered may or may not be able to be shared. Concentrated solar power got a boost from the commission, as it opened a docket for a proposed 250 MW, 2,000 acre, project in Kern County by FPL Energy through its subsidiary Beacon Solar. The Energy Commission staff found the project “data adequate” to proceed. Orchards have all but disappeared in California, and the Orange Grove energy project in northern San Diego County may or may not have gone the way of evanescent citrus. The commission postponed reconsidering two small power plants planned for a facility on former orange grove land. The units may have bigger environmental issues than originally anticipated, according to staff.