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The grid operator plans to review reliability must-run contracting at a Jan. 30 meeting. The California Independent System Operator is to issue a white paper ahead of the meeting, which will discuss the RMR tariff, agreement, and process and will seek to clarify and align RMR procurement versus backstop procurement under the capacity procurement mechanism tariff. The ultimate goal, the grid operator said, is to unify procurement under the two tariffs into “a single procurement framework.” The meeting comes amid controversy over the continued use of RMR contracts. California’s chief greenhouse gas regulator told state lawmakers this week that if the federal government constrains the state’s ability to set carbon emissions standards for vehicles state agencies will have to crack down on other sources of emissions. California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols made her remarks to the Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies and Assembly Committee on Natural Resources Jan. 4. She said that to meet state greenhouse gas reduction targets regulators could resort to tighter emissions reduction requirements for local businesses and motorists. For instance, she said, regulators could impose land-use controls that get people out of their cars and onto bikes and their feet for transport and zero net energy standards for new buildings. Her testimony came as the Trump Administration appears ready to relax federal carbon emissions standards for cars. Worldwide sales of plug-in electric vehicles surged past the one million mark in 2017, a new report by Navigant Research found Jan. 4. However, it noted that sales in the U.S. could be blunted in the upcoming period if Washington relaxes fuel economy standards and trims buyer incentives. Sales grew as the price of plug-ins dropped below the $40,000 mark, not much more than the some $35,000 the average car buyer paid for a new vehicle last year. Incandescent lights are officially out and LEDs are officially in with the New Year, at least in California. The Golden State implemented a federal lighting standard two years ahead of a national enforcement. California consumers will save more than $4 billion on power by using LEDs in place of incandescent bulbs over the next 13 years, the California Energy Commission estimated. “The new technology improves the mix of products available to people so that lighting is vastly improved,” said Energy Commissioner Andrew McAllister.

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