JUICE: Clean Sweep

Whether this year will bring be a gush or gurgle of new state energy bills remains to be seen, but most of the action on the clean energy front likely will be at the regulatory agencies, specifically the California Public Utilities Commission and California Air Resources Board. A key focus of top politicians and policy makers has and continues to be decarbonizing California’s energy sector. Earlier this month, Gov. Jerry Brown announced his intent to ensure that half of all retail electricity sales are powered by renewable resources by 2030. There has been ongoing debate over the mechanism for driving a 50 percent renewable portfolio—whether it’s via increasing the current 33 percent legislative renewable standard, an undefined “clean energy” standard, as urged by the utilities, or neither of the above. Will “climate change be the umbrella, will it be energy efficiency, the renewable portfolio standard or the Clean Air Act?” asked a Senate President pro Tem staffer, who asked not to be named. Brown is “grappling with the fact he wants to save the earth but not anger the electorate,” he added. New and revised energy legislation is being crafted in time to meet the bill introduction deadline of Feb. 27. On Jan. 28, Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) introduced legislation to achieve a “goal,” not a mandate, to reach a minimum of 50 percent renewable energy resources by 2030. How it will fair in the legislative rapids is unknown—including whether it will quickly drown or undergo such heavy amendments that it becomes unrecognizable. Meanwhile, Brown has not shied away from tapping into existing law to reach his clean energy goals, including for renewables, efficiency and alternative distributed generation outside the state capitol. His first major action in this area was after state legislators voted down reauthorizing the deregulation-created public goods charge that used ratepayer money to fund renewables, efficiency measures, and research and development at the California Energy Commission. A similar program, with more refined clean energy goals, was launched at the Public Utilities Commission under existing law. The commission and Air Board have existing statutory authority to increase utilities’ renewable energy mandate. AB 327 by former Assemblymember Henry Perea (D-Fresno), enacted in 2013, increased the Public Utilities Commission’s authority by stating the existing one-third renewable standard is a floor not a statutory ceiling. “The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources,” it states (emphasis added). “Particularly gratifying to me is that it enhances the power of the commission,” remarked Mike Peevey—now former California Public Utilities Commission president—at the Oct. 8, 2013, signing of AB 327. At the same time, the state’s climate protection law, AB 32, gives the Air Board wide berth on establishing measures to reduce the carbon emissions produced by the electricity sector. In both agencies’ cases, they have yet to flex these legislatively bulked up muscles. If they do, surely there will be legal challenges, as with nearly all clean energy proposals launched in and outside Sacramento. While there is an ongoing physical drought, expect big storms on the electricity decarbonization front. Elizabeth McCarthy

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JUICE: Clean Sweep

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