Editors’ note: Circuit’s CLEANTECH column highlights upcoming, promising new technology to ease energy woes. This week we start a LEAN TECH column to investigate what’s happening with green tech. State energy agencies and lawmakers are making progress carrying out many of the California Energy Commission’s policy recommendations, according to a draft commission report billed as a “report card.” However, they are lagging on changes to bolster renewable energy. That’s the commission’s assessment in its draft 2008 Integrated Energy Policy Report update, which it expects to adopt in final form next month. By law, the commission regularly prepares the report for lawmakers, the California Public Utilities Commission, the governor, and other agencies. Yet, the commission in its report card finds that lawmakers and the CPUC have been slow to embrace many of its past recommendations on renewable power, even though the state has a renewable energy portfolio standard law that requires investor-owned utilities to meet a 20 percent green energy target in 2010. Utilities lag in their progress toward that goal and most do not expect to meet it until some time after 2010, according to the report. In effect, reluctance to heed CEC’s past advice seems to have left the commission in the position of being all dressed up with nowhere to go when it comes to advancing renewable energy. Dutifully, though, the commission plans new recommendations to advance renewable energy even though it remains unclear other agencies and legislators are likely to give them any more weight than in the past. The CPUC has worked with the commission regarding the Integrated Energy Policy Report, acknowledged Terrie Prosper, agency spokesperson. However, she noted that “ultimately the Integrated Energy Policy Report is a . . . planning document that makes recommendations for California state policy, but does not bind the CPUC.” She characterized the differences between the two commissions over renewable energy as “minor.” Specifically, the Energy Commission notes that the Legislature and CPUC have been slow to allow utilities to use renewable energy credits to meet the state’s green energy standard. In 2006, the Legislature “conditionally authorized” the CPUC to allow utilities to buy “unbundled” credits to meet the state’s 20 percent renewables portfolio standard target. Two years later, however, the CPUC is still trying to define just what a renewable energy credit is. The commission also noted that although the state retains the ability to fine utilities 5 cents for each kWh they fall short in meeting the target, the CPUC and lawmakers have not lifted the existing $25 million penalty cap on investor-owned utilities that miss the green energy goal. Many consider the cap too low to spur the utilities to move more quickly on renewable energy. The commission added that the CPUC and lawmakers are sheltering utilities from penalties for up to three years if they can show their green energy procurement plans would meet the target if transmission lines were in place from the sites of planned green energy projects. In another failing, the commission noted the CPUC has not implemented a feed-in tariff strategy. Feed-in tariffs, widely used in Europe, require utilities to buy green energy at a set price from any developer that builds a renewable energy project. By doing so, they are intended to support renewable energy project development. The commission recommends such tariffs apply to any green energy project with up to a 20 MW capacity. Doing so would encourage small-scale projects distributed throughout utility service territories that help minimize the need to build new long distance transmission lines. More broadly, the commission said the Legislature has not placed publicly owned utilities under the same renewable energy standard mandated for investor-owned utilities. Many public utilities have adopted ambitious renewable energy plans under local mandates. However, their commitment has been uneven. It all adds up to missed opportunities to meet the state’s 20 percent green energy standard and cut greenhouse gases in a state that prides itself on doing both, warns the report.
