Bill Text: CA AB1391 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Energy Commission: penalties.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2011-09-10 - Withdrawn from committee. (Ayes 23. Noes 13. Page 2483.) Ordered to third reading. Read third time. Refused passage. (Ayes 18. Noes 21. Page 2489.). [AB1391 Detail]
Download: California-2011-AB1391-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1391 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 9, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bradford
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Smyth)
FEBRUARY 23, 2011
An act to amend Section 399.30 of the Public Utilities Code,
relating to electricity.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1391, as amended, Bradford. Energy Commission: penalties.
Existing law creates the California renewables portfolio standard
program (RPS program) and the Renewable Energy Resources Program to
increase the amount of electricity generated per year from eligible
renewable resources, as defined.
Existing law, effective on _____, requires
Effective on the 91st day after the adjournment of the 2011-12 First
Extraordinary Session, the Energy Commission is required
to refer a local publicly owned electric utility to the State
Air Resources Board if the utility fails to comply with these
programs and authorizes the state board to impose penalties.
This bill would delete these provisions and instead authorize the
Energy Commission to impose certain civil penalties on a local
publicly owned utility that fails to comply with these programs. The
bill would require the Energy Commission to establish, by regulation,
a prescribed penalty structure. The bill would subject any order
imposing penalties to judicial review and enforcement.
Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to deposit any
penalties it collects to enforce these programs into the Air
Pollution Control Fund.
This bill would delete this requirement and instead require the
Energy Commission to deposit any civil penalties imposed on a local
publicly owned utility in the Energy Resources Programs Account of
the General Fund, to be available, upon appropriation, for the
purposes of the program.
The bill would make conforming changes.
This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 399.30
of the Public Utilities Code, proposed by SB 23, to be operative only
if SB 23 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective
January 1, 2012, and this bill is chaptered last.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 399.30 of the Public Utilities Code, as added
by Section 29 of Chapter 1 of the First Extraordinary Session of the
Statutes of 2011, is amended to read:
399.30. (a) In order to fulfill unmet long-term generation
resource needs, each local publicly owned electric utility shall
adopt and implement a renewable energy resources procurement plan
that requires the utility to procure a minimum quantity of
electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources,
including renewable energy credits, as a specified percentage of
total kilowatthours sold to the utility's retail end-use customers,
each compliance period, to achieve the targets of subdivision (c).
(b) The governing board shall implement procurement targets for a
local publicly owned electric utility that require the utility to
procure a minimum quantity of eligible renewable energy resources for
each of the following compliance periods:
(1) January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2013, inclusive.
(2) January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2016, inclusive.
(3) January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2020, inclusive.
(c) The governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility
shall ensure all of the following:
(1) The quantities of eligible renewable energy resources to be
procured for the compliance period from January 1, 2011, to December
31, 2013, inclusive, are equal to an average of 20 percent of retail
sales.
(2) The quantities of eligible renewable energy resources to be
procured for all other compliance periods reflect reasonable progress
in each of the intervening years sufficient to ensure that the
procurement of electricity products from eligible renewable energy
resources achieves 25 percent of retail sales by December 31, 2016,
and 33 percent of retail sales by December 31, 2020. The local
governing board shall require the local publicly owned utilities to
procure not less than 33 percent of retail sales of electricity
products from eligible renewable energy resources in all subsequent
years.
(3) A local publicly owned electric utility shall adopt
procurement requirements consistent with Section 399.16.
(d) The governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility
may adopt the following measures:
(1) Rules permitting the utility to apply excess procurement in
one compliance period to subsequent compliance periods in the same
manner as allowed for retail sellers pursuant to Section 399.13.
(2) Conditions that allow for delaying timely compliance
consistent with subdivision (b) of Section 399.15.
(3) Cost limitations for procurement expenditures consistent with
subdivision (c) of Section 399.15.
(e) The governing board of the local publicly owned electric
utility shall adopt a program for the enforcement of this article on
or before January 1, 2012. The program shall be adopted at a publicly
noticed meeting offering all interested parties an opportunity to
comment. Not less than 30 days' notice shall be given to the public
of any meeting held for purposes of adopting the program. Not less
than 10 days' notice shall be given to the public before any meeting
is held to make a substantive change to the program.
(f) (1) Each local publicly owned electric utility shall annually
post notice, in accordance with Chapter 9 (commencing with Section
54950) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code,
whenever its governing body will deliberate in public on its
renewable energy resources procurement plan.
(2) Contemporaneous with the posting of the notice of a public
meeting to consider the renewable energy resources procurement plan,
the local publicly owned electric utility shall notify the Energy
Commission of the date, time, and location of the meeting in order to
enable the Energy Commission to post the information on its Internet
Web site. This requirement is satisfied if the local publicly owned
electric utility provides the uniform resource locator (URL) that
links to this information.
(3) Upon distribution to its governing body of information related
to its renewable energy resources procurement status and future
plans, for its consideration at a noticed public meeting, the local
publicly owned electric utility shall make that information available
to the public and shall provide the Energy Commission with an
electronic copy of the documents for posting on the Energy Commission'
s Internet Web site. This requirement is satisfied if the local
publicly owned electric utility provides the uniform resource locator
(URL) that links to the documents or information regarding other
manners of access to the documents.
(g) A local publicly owned electric utility shall annually submit
to the Energy Commission documentation regarding eligible renewable
energy resources procurement contracts that it executed during the
prior year, as follows:
(1) A description of the eligible renewable energy resource,
including the duration of the contract or electricity purchase
agreement.
(2) A description and identification of the electrical generating
facility providing the eligible renewable energy resource under the
contract.
(3) An estimate of the percentage increase in the utility's total
retail sales of electricity from eligible renewable energy resources
that will result from the contract.
(h) A public utility district that receives all of its electricity
pursuant to a preference right adopted and authorized by the United
States Congress pursuant to Section 4 of the Trinity River Division
Act of August 12, 1955 (Public Law 84-386) shall be in compliance
with the renewable energy procurement requirements of this article.
(i) For a local publicly owned electric utility that was in
existence on or before January 1, 2009, that provides retail electric
service to 15,000 or fewer customer accounts in California, and is
interconnected to a balancing authority located outside this state
but within the WECC, an eligible renewable energy resource includes a
facility that is located outside California that is connected to the
WECC transmission system, if all of the following conditions are
met:
(1) The electricity generated by the facility is procured by the
local publicly owned electric utility, is delivered to the balancing
authority area in which the local publicly owned electric utility is
located, and is not used to fulfill renewable energy procurement
requirements of other states.
(2) The local publicly owned electric utility participates in, and
complies with, the accounting system administered by the Energy
Commission pursuant to this article.
(3) The Energy Commission verifies that the electricity generated
by the facility is eligible to meet the renewables portfolio standard
procurement requirements.
(j) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), for a local publicly owned
electric utility that is a joint powers authority of districts
established pursuant to state law on or before January 1, 2005, that
furnish electric services other than to residential customers, and is
formed pursuant to the Irrigation District Law (Division 11
(commencing with Section 20500) of the Water Code), the percentage of
total kilowatthours sold to the district's retail end-use customers,
upon which the renewables portfolio standard procurement
requirements in subdivision (b) are calculated, shall be based on the
authority's average retail sales over the previous seven years. If
the authority has not furnished electric service for seven years,
then the calculation shall be based on average retail sales over the
number of completed years during which the authority has provided
electric service.
(k) A local publicly owned electric utility in a city and county
that only receives greater than 67 percent of its electricity sources
from hydroelectric generation located within the state that it owns
and operates, and that does not meet the definition of a "renewable
electrical generation facility" pursuant to Section 25741 of the
Public Resources Code, shall be required to procure eligible
renewable energy resources, including renewable energy credits, to
meet only the electricity demands unsatisfied by its hydroelectric
generation in any given year, in order to satisfy its renewable
energy procurement requirements.
(l) Each local publicly owned electric utility shall report, on an
annual basis, to its customers and to the Energy Commission, all of
the following:
(1) Expenditures of public goods funds collected pursuant to
Section 385 for eligible renewable energy resource development.
Reports shall contain a description of programs, expenditures, and
expected or actual results.
(2) The resource mix used to serve its customers by energy source.
(3) The utility's status in implementing a renewables portfolio
standard pursuant to subdivision (a) and the utility's progress
toward attaining the standard following implementation.
(m) A local publicly owned electric utility shall retain
discretion over both of the following:
(1) The mix of eligible renewable energy resources procured by the
utility and those additional generation resources procured by the
utility for purposes of ensuring resource adequacy and reliability.
(2) The reasonable costs incurred by the utility for eligible
renewable energy resources owned by the utility.
(n) On or before July 1, 2012, the Energy Commission shall adopt
regulations specifying procedures for enforcement of this article.
The regulations shall include a public process under which the Energy
Commission may issue a notice of violation and correction against a
local publicly owned electric utility for failure to comply with this
article, and for the assessment of civil penalties pursuant to
subdivision (o).
(o) (1) Upon a determination by the Energy Commission that a local
publicly owned electric utility has failed to comply with this
article, the Energy Commission may impose penalties to enforce this
article, consistent with this section. Any penalty imposed upon a
local publicly owned electric utility pursuant to this section shall
parallel those adopted by the commission for noncompliance with the
requirements of this article by a retail seller. The Energy
Commission has exclusive authority to assess penalties upon a local
publicly owned electric utility for a failure to comply with this
article.
(2) A local publicly owned electric utility that violates any
order, rule, or regulation of the Energy Commission issued or adopted
pursuant to this article, may be assessed a civil penalty in
accordance with the procedures described in Section 25534.1 of the
Public Resources Code. In lieu of the penalty structure set forth in
Section 25534 of the Public Resources Code, the Energy Commission
shall establish the penalty structure by regulation, which shall
consider, in addition to other relevant factors, the penalty
structure adopted by the commission for noncompliance by retail
sellers.
(3) Any order of the Energy Commission that imposes penalties
pursuant to this section shall be subject to judicial review and
enforcement as specified in subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section
25534.2 of the Public Resources Code.
(4) Any civil penalties collected by the Energy Commission from a
local publicly owned electric utility pursuant to this section shall
be deposited in the Energy Resources Programs Account and, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, shall be expended for the purposes
of meeting the goals of this article. Those penalty revenues may be
used by the Energy Commission for the administration of this article.
(p) The commission has no authority or jurisdiction to enforce
any of the requirements of this article on a local publicly owned
electric utility.
SEC. 1.5. Section 399.30 of the Public Utilities Code, as added by
Section 29 of Chapter 1 of the First Extraordinary Session of the
Statutes of 2011, is amended to read:
399.30. (a) In order to fulfill unmet long-term generation
resource needs, each local publicly owned electric utility shall
adopt and implement a renewable energy resources procurement plan
that requires the utility to procure a minimum quantity of
electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources,
including renewable energy credits, as a specified percentage of
total kilowatthours sold to the utility's retail end-use customers,
each compliance period, to achieve the targets of subdivision (c).
(b) The governing board shall implement procurement targets for a
local publicly owned electric utility that require the utility to
procure a minimum quantity of eligible renewable energy resources for
each of the following compliance periods:
(1) January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2013, inclusive.
(2) January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2016, inclusive.
(3) January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2020, inclusive.
(c) The governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility
shall ensure all of the following:
(1) The quantities of eligible renewable energy resources to be
procured for the compliance period from January 1, 2011, to December
31, 2013, inclusive, are equal to an average of 20 percent of retail
sales.
(2) The quantities of eligible renewable energy resources to be
procured for all other compliance periods reflect reasonable progress
in each of the intervening years sufficient to ensure that the
procurement of electricity products from eligible renewable energy
resources achieves 25 percent of retail sales by December 31, 2016,
and 33 percent of retail sales by December 31, 2020. The local
governing board shall require the local publicly owned utilities to
procure not less than 33 percent of retail sales of electricity
products from eligible renewable energy resources in all subsequent
years.
(3) A local publicly owned electric utility shall adopt
procurement requirements consistent with Section 399.16.
(d) The governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility
may adopt the following measures:
(1) Rules permitting the utility to apply excess procurement
of eligible renewable energy resources accumulated through
December 31, 2010, or from one compliance period to subsequent
compliance periods, in the same manner as allowed for retail sellers.
Those rules shall ensure that excess procurement accumulated through
December 31, 2010, is calculated based on annual eligible renewable
energy resource procurement targets in effect since 2006, provided
that the procurement targets, as amended, specified the achievement
of not less than a 20 percent renewables portfolio standard by no
later than December 31, 2010, and included increasing procurement
targets for each intervening year. in one compliance
period to subsequent compliance periods in the same manner as allowed
for retail sellers pursuant to Section 399.13.
(2) Conditions that allow for delaying timely compliance
consistent with subdivision (b) of Section 399.15.
(3) Cost limitations for procurement expenditures consistent with
subdivision (c) of Section 399.15.
(e) The governing board of the local publicly owned electric
utility shall adopt a program for the enforcement of this article on
or before January 1, 2013. The program shall be adopted at a publicly
noticed meeting offering all interested parties an opportunity to
comment. Not less than 30 days' notice shall be given to the public
of any meeting held for purposes of adopting the program. Not less
than 10 days' notice shall be given to the public before any meeting
is held to make a substantive change to the program.
(f) (1) Each local publicly owned electric utility shall annually
post notice, in accordance with Chapter 9 (commencing with Section
54950) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code,
whenever its governing body will deliberate in public on its
renewable energy resources procurement plan.
(2) Contemporaneous with the posting of the notice of a public
meeting to consider the renewable energy resources procurement plan,
the local publicly owned electric utility shall notify the Energy
Commission of the date, time, and location of the meeting in order to
enable the Energy Commission to post the information on its Internet
Web site. This requirement is satisfied if the local publicly owned
electric utility provides the uniform resource locator (URL) that
links to this information.
(3) Upon distribution to its governing body of information related
to its renewable energy resources procurement status and future
plans, for its consideration at a noticed public meeting, the local
publicly owned electric utility shall make that information available
to the public and shall provide the Energy Commission with an
electronic copy of the documents for posting on the Energy Commission'
s Internet Web site. This requirement is satisfied if the local
publicly owned electric utility provides the uniform resource locator
(URL) that links to the documents or information regarding other
manners of access to the documents.
(g) A local publicly owned electric utility shall annually submit
to the Energy Commission documentation regarding eligible renewable
energy resources procurement contracts that it executed during the
prior year, as follows:
(1) A description of the eligible renewable energy resource,
including the duration of the contract or electricity purchase
agreement.
(2) A description and identification of the electrical generating
facility providing the eligible renewable energy resource under the
contract.
(3) An estimate of the percentage increase in the utility's total
retail sales of electricity from eligible renewable energy resources
that will result from the contract.
(h) A public utility district that receives all of its electricity
pursuant to a preference right adopted and authorized by the United
States Congress pursuant to Section 4 of the Trinity River Division
Act of August 12, 1955 (Public Law 84-386) shall be in compliance
with the renewable energy procurement requirements of this article.
(i) For a local publicly owned electric utility that was in
existence on or before January 1, 2009, that provides retail electric
service to 15,000 or fewer customer accounts in California, and is
interconnected to a balancing authority located outside this state
but within the WECC, an eligible renewable energy resource includes a
facility that is located outside California that is connected to the
WECC transmission system, if all of the following conditions are
met:
(1) The electricity generated by the facility is procured by the
local publicly owned electric utility, is delivered to the balancing
authority area in which the local publicly owned electric utility is
located, and is not used to fulfill renewable energy procurement
requirements of other states.
(2) The local publicly owned electric utility participates in, and
complies with, the accounting system administered by the Energy
Commission pursuant to this article.
(3) The Energy Commission verifies that the electricity generated
by the facility is eligible to meet the renewables portfolio standard
procurement requirements.
(j) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), for a local publicly owned
electric utility that is a joint powers authority of districts
established pursuant to state law on or before January 1, 2005, that
furnish electric services other than to residential customers, and is
formed pursuant to the Irrigation District Law (Division 11
(commencing with Section 20500) of the Water Code), the percentage of
total kilowatthours sold to the district's retail end-use customers,
upon which the renewables portfolio standard procurement
requirements in subdivision (b) are calculated, shall be based on the
authority's average retail sales over the previous seven years. If
the authority has not furnished electric service for seven years,
then the calculation shall be based on average retail sales over the
number of completed years during which the authority has provided
electric service.
(k) A local publicly owned electric utility in a city and county
that only receives greater than 67 percent of its electricity sources
from hydroelectric generation located within the state that it owns
and operates, and that does not meet the definition of a "renewable
electrical generation facility" pursuant to Section 25741 of the
Public Resources Code, shall be required to procure eligible
renewable energy resources, including renewable energy credits, to
meet only the electricity demands unsatisfied by its hydroelectric
generation in any given year, in order to satisfy its renewable
energy procurement requirements.
(l) Each local publicly owned electric utility shall report, on an
annual basis, to its customers and to the Energy Commission, all of
the following:
(1) Expenditures of public goods funds collected pursuant to
Section 385 for eligible renewable energy resource development.
Reports shall contain a description of programs, expenditures, and
expected or actual results.
(2) The resource mix used to serve its customers by energy source.
(3) The utility's status in implementing a renewables portfolio
standard pursuant to subdivision (a) and the utility's progress
toward attaining the standard following implementation, including
information that demonstrates the conditions, if any, delaying the
utility's timely compliance with the renewables portfolio standard
consistent with paragraph (5) of subdivision (b) of Section 399.15.
(m) A local publicly owned electric utility shall retain
discretion over both of the following:
(1) The mix of eligible renewable energy resources procured by the
utility and those additional generation resources procured by the
utility for purposes of ensuring resource adequacy and reliability.
(2) The reasonable costs incurred by the utility for eligible
renewable energy resources owned by the utility.
(n) On or before July 1, 2012, the Energy Commission shall adopt
regulations specifying procedures for enforcement of this article.
The regulations shall include a public process under which the Energy
Commission may issue a notice of violation and correction against a
local publicly owned electric utility for failure to comply with this
article, and for the assessment of civil penalties pursuant to
subdivision (o).
(o) (1) Upon a determination by the Energy Commission that a local
publicly owned electric utility has failed to comply with this
article, the Energy Commission may impose penalties to enforce this
article, consistent with this section. Any penalty imposed upon a
local publicly owned electric utility pursuant to this section shall
parallel those adopted by the commission for noncompliance with the
requirements of this article by a retail seller. The Energy
Commission has exclusive authority to assess penalties upon a local
publicly owned electric utility for a failure to comply with this
article.
(2) A local publicly owned electric utility that violates any
order, rule, or regulation of the Energy Commission issued or adopted
pursuant to this article, may be assessed a civil penalty in
accordance with the procedures described in Section 25534.1 of the
Public Resources Code. In lieu of the penalty structure set forth in
Section 25534 of the Public Resources Code, the Energy Commission
shall establish the penalty structure by regulation, which shall
consider, in addition to other relevant factors, the penalty
structure adopted by the commission for noncompliance by retail
sellers.
(3) Any order of the Energy Commission that imposes penalties
pursuant to this section shall be subject to judicial review and
enforcement as specified in subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section
25534.2 of the Public Resources Code.
(4) Any civil penalties collected by the Energy Commission from a
local publicly owned electric utility pursuant to this section shall
be deposited in the Energy Resources Programs Account and, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, shall be expended for the purposes
of meeting the goals of this article. Those penalty revenues may be
used by the Energy Commission for the administration of this article.
(p) The commission has no authority or jurisdiction to enforce any
of the requirements of this article on a local publicly owned
electric utility.
SEC. 2. Section 1.5 of this bill incorporates amendments to
Section 399.30 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by both this
bill and Senate Bill 23. It shall only become operative if (1) both
bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2012,
(2) each bill amends Section 399.30 of the Public Utilities Code, and
(3) this bill is enacted after Senate Bill 23, in which case Section
1 of this bill shall not become operative.
