BILL ANALYSIS
SB 183
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Date of Hearing: July 7, 2003
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Hannah-Beth Jackson, Chair
SB 183 (Sher) - As Amended: July 3, 2003
SENATE VOTE : 35-1
SUBJECT : Energy: renewable technologies
SUMMARY : This bill requires the California Energy Commission
(CEC) to publish information on available funds in the Emerging
Renewable Resources Account, repeals code sections governing
funding of in-state renewable resources and recasts the
provisions, and requires biomass facilities to report their fuel
mixes to the CEC to be eligible for awards.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires ratepayers to fund a variety of system reliability,
in-state benefit and low-income customer programs at specific
levels. This funding is intended to ensure that these "public
goods" programs continued in the restructured electric
industry.
2)Requires the CEC to grant specific percentages of these funds
to various programs.
3)Requires Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to buy renewable
resources from statutorily-defined eligible renewable energy
resources to increase their existing level of renewable power
by one percent per year with twenty percent of their total
portfolio coming from renewable resources by 2017.
THIS BILL :
1)Repeals two code sections in the Public Utilities Code
relating to the funding and administration of renewable energy
programs at the CEC and recasts the same language in multiple
code sections in the Public Resources Code.
2)Requires the CEC to annually publish the balance of consumer
incentive programs funds available to emerging renewable
energy resources.
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3)Eliminates CEC discretion to award grants for the development
of new renewable electrical generation facilities to
out-of-state renewable electricity generators.
4)Allows out-of-state renewable energy facilities to qualify as
eligible renewable energy resources for procurement under the
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) if:
a) It is located so that it is or will be connected to the
Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)
transmission system, and
b) It is developed with guaranteed contracts to sell its
generation to end-use customers subject to the funding
requirements, or to marketers that provide this guarantee
for resale of the generation, for a period of time at least
equal to the amount of time it receives incentive payments.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS :
Assembly Bill 1890 (Brulte), Chapter 854, Statutes of 1996,
required ratepayers to fund a variety of system reliability,
in-state benefit and low-income customer programs at specific
levels from 1998 through 2001. This funding was intended to
ensure that programs administered by the investor owned
utilities would continue in the restructured electric industry.
Among these programs are grants to promote operation and
development of existing, new, and emerging renewable energy
sources.
Under the program CEC distributes grant and rebate money to
develop renewable energy. The code section that creates these
programs is unwieldy and difficult to follow. According to the
author's office, this bill recasts this section as a series of
short sections that are easier to apply.
This bill also requires the CEC to publish the balance of the
funds available to use for consumer incentive programs to ensure
that companies that provide renewable technologies can keep tabs
on the availability of funding. Under SB 1038 (Sher), Chapter
1050, Statutes of 2002, the CEC is authorized to grant awards to
out-of-state renewable energy providers if those providers are
under contract to sell electricity to California utility
SB 183
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customers. This bill eliminates that discretion due to concerns
that California ratepayer money should not be used to subsidize
out-of- state generators.
Senate Bill 1078 (Sher), Chapter 516, Statutes of 2002 created
the RPS, requiring IOUs to buy renewable resources with the goal
of increasing their existing level of renewable resources by one
percent per year to achieved a twenty percent renewable
resources portfolio by 2017. Under SB 1078 IOUs are required to
buy all qualifying renewable power from generation located
within California. The prohibition against purchasing renewable
generation from out-of-state providers has raised concerns that
RPS may violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by
interfering with interstate commerce. The provision to allow
out-of-state- renewable generation to count toward RPS standard
is intended to assure that RPS does not violate the U.S.
Constitution.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Kyra Emanuels Ross / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092