BILL ANALYSIS 1
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SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
SB 185 - Sher Hearing Date: April 8, 2003
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As Amended: March 25, 2003 FISCAL B
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DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires retail sellers of electricity to disclose
their sources of electricity, but allows sellers who don't make
any claims about their sources to report statewide averages,
rather than their actual sources. Existing law requires
renewable resources to be separately identified according to
specified fuel types (biomass and waste, geothermal, small
hydroelectric, solar, and wind)
This bill requires retail sellers to disclose their actual
purchases by source and repeals the provision allowing sellers
to report statewide averages. This bill conforms the definition
of a renewable electricity resource to that established by SB
1078 (Sher), Chapter 516, Statutes of 2002* and repeals the
requirement that renewable resources be separately identified
according to fuel type.
*Under SB 1078, "eligible renewable energy resources" are
biomass, solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal,
renewable fuel cells, hydroelectric 30 megawatts or less,
digester gas, municipal solid waste conversion, landfill gas,
ocean wave, ocean thermal, and tidal current.
BACKGROUND
SB 1305 (Sher), Chapter 796, Statutes of 1997, requires, among
other things, retail sellers of electricity to tell their
customers the sources of the electricity they provide. SB 1305
resulted in the "Power Content Label" periodically included in
utility bills, which indicates the percentages of various types
of renewable, coal, large hydroelectric, and natural gas
resources in the retail seller's portfolio. Retail sellers
making no specific product claims are permitted to report system
averages, rather than their actual portfolio.
With the demise of the Power Exchange, the system average
portfolio is harder to discern and less relevant. With the
passage of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), individual
sellers' electricity sources are more significant to their
customers. By conforming the definition of renewable resources
for the purpose of the Power Content Label to the definition
that applies to the RPS, this bill will ensure that customers
can easily track their supplier's progress toward meeting the
RPS 20% renewable goal.
COMMENTS
Should the requirement to disclose specific types of renewable
resources be eliminated? The existing Power Content Label
identifies renewable purchases according to the five predominant
fuel types - biomass and waste, geothermal, small hydroelectric,
solar, and wind - as required by existing law. This bill
eliminates that requirement, although the California Energy
Commission still could decide to require renewable resources to
be separately identified. The author and the committee may wish
to consider whether identification of renewable resources by
type remains important and whether it should be mandatory, or
not.
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Author
Support:
Southern California Edison
Oppose:
None on file
Lawrence Lingbloom
SB 185 Analysis
Hearing Date: April 8, 2003