AB 2196 — Renewable energy resources.

Summary

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission 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. The existing California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (RPS program) requires a retail seller of electricity, as defined, and local publicly owned electric utilities to purchase specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, for specified compliance periods. The specified minimum quantities of electricity products are based upon a percentage of the utility's total retail sales of electricity in California. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to (1) certify eligible renewable energy resources, (2) design and implement an accounting system to verify compliance with the renewables portfolio standard by retail sellers, (3) establish a system for tracking and verifying renewable energy credits (RECs) that verifies the generation and delivery of electricity associated with RECs, and (4) certify the eligibility of RECs associated with deliveries of electricity to a local publicly owned electric utility. Under existing law the Energy Commission administers the Renewable Energy Resources Program (RER program) with the near-term objective of increasing the quantity of electricity generated by renewable electrical generation facilities, as defined, while protecting system reliability, fostering resource diversity, and obtaining the greatest environmental benefits for California residents, and with the long-term goal of obtaining a fully competitive and self-sustaining supply of electricity generated from renewable resources. Under existing law, the RPS program's definition of an eligible renewable energy resource incorporates, by reference, the RER program's definition of a renewable electrical generation facility. This bill would amend the RER program's definition of a renewable electrical generation facility to provide that if the RPS program eligibility of a facility is based on the use of landfill gas, digester gas, or another renewable fuel delivered to the facility through a common carrier pipeline, the transaction for the procurement of that fuel, including the source of the fuel and delivery method, shall meet certain conditions, as specified. This bill would impose certain requirements with respect to the eligibility of biomethane under the RPS program. The bill would specify that certain biomethane procurement contracts executed by a retail seller or local publicly owned electric utility prior to March 29, 2012, count in full toward the RPS program's procurement requirements under the rules applicable to eligible renewable energy resources contracts at the time the procurement contracts were executed, if specified conditions are met. The bill would, with respect to contracts executed prior to March 29, 2012, but subsequently extended or modified, as specified, and with respect to contracts executed after that date, impose certain requirements on the RPS eligibility of biomethane, as specified. With respect to biomethane that is used by an onsite generating facility, and biomethane that is used offsite and delivered to the generating facility through a dedicated pipeline, the bill would specify that the use of that biomethane counts towards the RPS program's procurement requirements if that use satisfies all applicable requirements established by the Energy Commission. With respect to biomethane that is delivered to a generating facility through a common carrier pipeline, the bill would, among other things, require: (1) the biomethane to be injected into a common carrier pipeline that physically flows within California or toward the generating facility for which the biomethane was procured under the original contract; (2) that the source of biomethane did not inject biomethane into a common carrier pipeline prior to March 29, 2012, or the source commenced injection of sufficient incremental quantities of biomethane after March 29, 2012, to satisfy the contract requirements; and (3) that the seller or purchaser of the biomethane demonstrates that the capture and injection of biomethane into a common carrier pipeline directly results in at least one of 3 specified environmental benefits to California. The bill would also prohibit specified parties to a biomethane procurement contract from making representations asserting that the procurement contract results in greenhouse gas reductions, as specified, unless the environmental attributes associated with the biomethane are transferred to the purchaser, as specified. This bill would become operative only if this bill and AB 1900 of the 2011–12 Regular Session are both enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2013.

Bill Text

• Chaptered 09/27/12 - Chaptered Current pdf September 27, 2012
• Enrolled 09/11/12 - Enrolled pdf September 11, 2012
• Amended 08/31/12 - Amended Senate pdf August 31, 2012
• Amended 08/22/12 - Amended Senate pdf August 22, 2012
• Amended 08/06/12 - Amended Senate pdf August 06, 2012
• Amended 06/20/12 - Amended Senate pdf June 20, 2012
• Amended 05/15/12 - Amended Assembly pdf May 15, 2012
• Introduced 02/23/12 - Introduced pdf February 23, 2012
• AB2196 View text html

Action History

1. September 27, 2012

   Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 605, Statutes of 2012.

2. September 27, 2012

   Approved by the Governor.

3. September 13, 2012

   Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.

4. August 31, 2012

   Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 52. Noes 25. Page 6800.).

5. August 31, 2012

   Assembly Rule 63 suspended. (Page 6799.)

6. August 31, 2012

   In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.

7. August 31, 2012

   Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 2. Page 5098.).

8. August 31, 2012

   (Ayes 23. Noes 13. Page 5077.)

9. August 31, 2012

   Ordered to third reading.

10. August 31, 2012

    Withdrawn from committee.

11. August 31, 2012

    From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on RLS.

12. August 31, 2012

    Senate Rule 29.3(b) suspended. (Ayes 24. Noes 12. Page 5066.)

13. August 31, 2012

    (Ayes 24. Noes 12. Page 5066.)

14. August 31, 2012

    Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

15. August 31, 2012

    From inactive file.

16. August 30, 2012

    Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator Dutton.

17. August 30, 2012

    Ordered to inactive file pursuant to Senate Rule 29.

18. August 23, 2012

    Reconsideration granted. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 4780.)

19. August 23, 2012

    Motion to reconsider made by Senator Kehoe.

20. August 23, 2012

    Read third time. Refused passage. (Ayes 12. Noes 21. Page 4779.).

21. August 22, 2012

    Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading.

22. August 21, 2012

    From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (August 16).

23. August 06, 2012

    In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file.

24. August 06, 2012

    Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

25. July 06, 2012

    From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (July 2).

26. June 26, 2012

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on E.Q. (Ayes 11. Noes 1.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on E.Q.

27. June 20, 2012

    From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on E., U. & C.

28. June 14, 2012

    Referred to Coms. on E., U. & C. and E.Q.

29. May 25, 2012

    In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.

30. May 25, 2012

    Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 66. Noes 1. Page 4978.)

31. May 16, 2012

    Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

32. May 15, 2012

    Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.

33. May 14, 2012

    From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (May 9).

34. May 02, 2012

    In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.

35. April 17, 2012

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (April 16). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

36. April 10, 2012

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 9). Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES.

37. March 19, 2012

    Referred to Coms. on U. & C. and NAT. RES.

38. February 24, 2012

    From printer. May be heard in committee March 25.

39. February 23, 2012

    Read first time. To print.

Sponsors

• Chesbro · Primary
• Gatto · Cosponsor
• Skinner · Cosponsor

Votes

Subjects