AB 645: Electricity: California Renewables Portfolio Standard.

(1)Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing boards.

Existing law establishes the California Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) program, which expresses the intent of the Legislature that the amount of electricity generated per year from eligible renewable energy resources be increased to an amount that equals at least 33% of the total electricity sold to retail customers in California per year by December 31, 2020. Existing law requires the PUC, by January 1, 2012, to establish the quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to be procured by each retail seller for specified compliance periods, sufficient to ensure that the procurement of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, and 33% of retail sales by December 31, 2020, and that retail sellers procure not less than 33% of retail sales in all subsequent years.

Existing law makes the requirements of the RPS program applicable to local publicly owned electric utilities, except that the utilitys governing board is responsible for implementation of those requirements, instead of the PUC, and certain enforcement authority with respect to local publicly owned electric utilities is given to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and State Air Resources Board, instead of the PUC.

This bill would additionally express the intent of the Legislature for the purposes of the RPS program that the amount of electricity generated per year from eligible renewable energy resources be increased to an amount equal to at least 50% by December 31, 2030, and would require the PUC, by January 1, 2017, to establish the quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to be procured by each retail seller for specified compliance periods sufficient to ensure that the procurement of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources achieves 50% of retail sales by December 31, 2030, and that retail sellers procure not less than 50% of retail sales in all subsequent years. The bill would require the governing boards of local publicly owned electric utilities to ensure that specified quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to be procured for specified compliance periods to ensure that the procurement of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources achieve 50% of retail sales by December 31, 2030, and that the local publicly owned electric utilities procure not less than 50% of retail sales in all subsequent years.

(2)Under existing law, a violation of the RPS program is a crime.

Because the provisions of this bill would expand the RPS program, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime.

(3)By placing additional requirements upon local publicly owned electric utilities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(4)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reasons.