State and Federal Policies
Energy development and delivery is heavily regulated by a myriad of state and federal policies pertaining to environmental protection, climate change, renewable energy and reliability standards.
California Policies:
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a statute that requires state and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible. As part of CEQA, public agencies should include public involvement, both formal and informal, to evaluate public reactions to environmental issues related to the agency's activities.
More about CEQA can be found at: http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/ and CEQA's Statute and Guidelines can be found at: http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/.
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) set a series of specific greenhouse gas emission reduction goals into law. Specifically, the Act requires that Greenhouse Gas emissions be lowered to 2000 levels by 2010, and to 1990 levels by 2020, a reduction of approximately 50 million and 114 million metric tons, respectively, from "business as usual" projections.
More about AB 32 can be found at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm.
The California Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) was established in 2002 under Senate Bill 1078 and accelerated in 2006 under Senate Bill 107, requiring electric corporations to increase their purchase of energy from renewable sources by at least 1percent of their retail sales annually, with the mandate to purchase at least 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010 (later extended until 2013).
More about RPS can be found at: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Renewables/index.htm.
In 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an Executive Order increasing those requirements to 33 percent by 2020. More information can be found at: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Renewables/hot/33implementation.htm.
In 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed a law codifying this requirement that all California utilities get 33% of the electricity they sell from renewable sources by the year 2020. More information can be found at:
http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sbx1_2_bill_20110412_chaptered.html.
Federal Policies:
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Reliability Standards include more than 1,000 requirements and sub-requirements to which Transmission Users, Owners and Operators and Generation Owners and Operators must comply to ensure reliable delivery of electric service or pay financial sanctions of up to $1 million per day per violation. The complete set of Reliability Standards can be found at: http://www.nerc.com/files/Reliability_Standards_Complete_Set_2009Dec3.pdf.
The Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to approve needed transmission lines in areas designated as significantly overburdened if state regulators fail to take action. An overview of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 can be found at: http://www.ferc.gov/legal/fed-sta/epact-fact-sheet.pdf and the Act in its entirety can be found at: http://doi.net/iepa/EnergyPolicyActof2005.pdf.
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