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A bill to replace a $62.5 million California Energy Commission research and development program was voted down in a key Assembly committee June 27--but that’s not the end of the story. As amended after passing the state Senate June 2, SB 35, by Senator Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley), repeals the state public goods charge. That surcharge is levied on electricity bills to fund the Energy Commission’s popular Public Interest Energy Research program. Each year the surcharge also provides $228 million in subsidies for renewable energy and $65 million for energy efficiency work. Voicing concerns it had not been involved in the details of the legislation, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee voted 4-3 against the measure. The committee, however, agreed to reconsider Padilla’s bill at a later date. The vote came after Padilla told the panel he wants to replace the agency-administered program with a more narrowly focused and possibly better-funded California Energy Research & Technology program. A 17-member committee would guide the program, drawing its members from state energy agencies, utilities, universities and public interest groups. Funding for the new program--which is to focus on promoting renewable energy and efficiency and cutting greenhouse gases--has not been identified. “It arguably would be better and more narrowly focused,” Padilla told skeptical Assembly members who voiced concerns they have not been involved in discussions about the bill to date. Committee chair Assemblymember Wes Chesbro (D-North Coast) said the panel wants to have some say in what to do with the PIER program and other state energy work funded by the public goods charges. Environmentalists criticized Padilla’s bill for not addressing public goods charge funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy subsidies. Money for all three of the programs--research and development, energy efficiency, and renewable energy--should be reauthorized, urged Sierra Martinez, Natural Resources Defense Council attorney. The failure of Padilla’s measure comes as the public goods charge and Energy Commission research program are set to expire at the end of this year unless reauthorized. The public goods charge programs--which lawmakers put in place when they deregulated the electric utility industry in 1996--have drawn criticism for lack of focus and excessive overhead. Since the state levied the charge, a Legislative staff analysis notes, the California Public Utilities Commission dramatically expanded utility energy efficiency programs. The commission ordered the state’s investor-owned utilities to spend billions of dollars of ratepayer money on appliance rebates, efficient lighting, and other measures. In addition, the state adopted a 20 percent renewable energy standard in 2002 and increased it to 33 percent earlier this year, providing a guaranteed market for renewable energy producers. In defense of continuing the program, the Energy Commission points out that research projects funded by PIER enabled it to adopt energy efficiency standards for televisions and other devices that are saving state ratepayers $1 billion annually. SB 35 is one of several measures that deal with the expiring public goods charge and PIER program. The others--SB 410, AB 723, and AB 1303--would extend the public goods charge and PIER program anywhere from 2016 to 2022.

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