BILL NUMBER: SB 767 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 4, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator Lieu
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to amend Section 216 399.12.6
of the Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 767, as amended, Lieu. Public utilities.
utilities: California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program:
biomethane.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations,
as defined. The existing California Renewables Portfolio Standard
Program (RPS program) requires a retail seller of electricity, as
defined, and a local publicly owned electric utility to purchase
specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible
renewable energy resources, as defined, for specified compliance
periods. Existing law requires the procurement of biomethane
delivered through a common carrier pipeline under a contract, as
provided, to count toward the procurement requirements established by
the RPS program, under rules in place at the time the contract was
executed, provided that the rules apply only to sources that are
producing biomethane and injecting it into a common carrier pipeline
on or before April 1, 2014.
This bill would amend that date to April 1, 2015.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities and can establish its own
procedures, subject to statutory limitations or directions and
constitutional requirements of due process. The Public Utilities Act
provides the commission with specified regulatory authorities over
public utilities. The act defines the term "public utilities" for the
purposes of the act.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that
definition.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 399.12.6 of the
Public Utilities Code is amended to read:
399.12.6. (a) (1) Any procurement of biomethane delivered through
a common carrier pipeline under a contract executed by a retail
seller or local publicly owned electric utility and reported to the
Energy Commission prior to March 29, 2012, and otherwise eligible
under the rules in place as of the date of contract execution shall
count toward the procurement requirements established in this
article, under the rules in place at the time the contract was
executed, including the Fourth Edition of the Energy Commission's
Renewables Portfolio Standard Eligibility Guidebook, provided that
those rules shall apply only to sources that are producing biomethane
and injecting it into a common carrier pipeline on or before April
1, 2014 2015 .
(2) The eligibility requirements of subdivision (b) shall apply
beginning March 29, 2012, to any quantities of biomethane associated
with any of the following:
(A) An extension of the term of the original contract.
(B) Any quantity of biomethane that exceeds the quantities of
biomethane specified in the original contract.
(C) Any optional quantities of biomethane that can be exercised at
the discretion of the buyer.
(D) Any change in the source or sources of biomethane identified
in the original contract or the original application for
certification submitted to the Energy Commission.
(E) Any quantity of biomethane from a source not producing and
capturing biomethane and injecting it into a common carrier pipeline
on or before April 1, 2014 2015 .
(F) The conditions of this paragraph shall apply beginning March
29, 2012.
(b) For contracts initially executed on or after March 29, 2012,
or for quantities of biomethane associated with contract amendments
executed on or after March 29, 2012, the use of biomethane by a
generating facility shall not qualify as an eligible renewable energy
resource unless it satisfies all applicable requirements established
by the Energy Commission and meets any of the following
requirements:
(1) The biomethane is used by an onsite generating facility.
(2) The biomethane is used by an offsite generating facility and
delivered to the generating facility through a dedicated pipeline.
(3) The biomethane is delivered to a generating facility through a
common carrier pipeline and meets all of the following requirements:
(A) The source of biomethane injects the biomethane 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.
(B) 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.
(C) 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 the following
environmental benefits to California:
(i) The reduction or avoidance of the emission of any criteria air
pollutant in California.
(ii) The reduction or avoidance of pollutants that could have an
adverse impact on waters of the state.
(iii) The alleviation of a local nuisance within California that
is associated with the emission of odors.
(c) For all electricity products generated using biomethane that
are credited toward the renewables portfolio standard procurement
obligations established pursuant to this article, sufficient
renewable and environmental attributes of biomethane production and
capture shall be transferred to the retail seller or local publicly
owned electric utility that uses that biomethane to ensure that there
are zero net emissions associated with the production of electricity
from the generating facility using the biomethane. The provisions of
this subdivision shall be applied in a manner consistent with the
definition of "green attributes" as specified by the commission in
Decision 08-08-028, Decision on Definition and Attributes of
Renewable Energy Credits for Compliance with the California
Renewables Portfolio Standard (August 21, 2008), as may be modified
by subsequent decision of the commission.
(d) All sellers and purchasers of biomethane shall comply with a
system for tracking and verifying the use of biomethane, as
established by the Energy Commission, that is equivalent to the
system required by subdivision (c) of Section 399.25.
(e) For contracts initially executed on or after March 29, 2012,
or for quantities of biomethane associated with contract amendments
executed after March 29, 2012, the use of biomethane shall be
assigned to the appropriate portfolio content category based on the
application of the criteria in subdivision (b) of Section 399.16 to
the procurement of electricity by the retail seller or local publicly
owned electric utility from the generating facility consuming the
biomethane.
(f) A retail seller, local publicly owned electric utility, or an
intermediary party to a biomethane procurement contract shall not
make a marketing, regulatory, or retail claim that asserts that a
biomethane procurement contract to which that entity was a party
resulted, or will result, in greenhouse gas reductions related to the
destruction of methane if the capture and destruction is required by
law. If the capture and destruction of the biomethane is not
required by law, a retail seller, local publicly owned electric
utility, or an intermediary party to a biomethane procurement
contract shall not make a marketing, regulatory, or retail claim that
asserts that a biomethane procurement contract to which that entity
was a party resulted, or will result, in greenhouse gas reductions
related to the destruction of methane, unless the environmental
attributes associated with the capture and destruction of the
biomethane pursuant to that contract are transferred to the retail
seller or publicly owned electric utility that purchased that
biomethane and retired on behalf of the retail customers consuming
the electricity associated with the use of that biomethane, or unless
the biomethane procurement contract prohibits the source of
biomethane from separately marketing the environmental attributes
associated with the capture and destruction of the biomethane sold
pursuant to that contract. These attributes shall be retired and may
not be resold.
(g) For the purposes of this section, "biomethane" means landfill
gas or digester gas, consistent with Section 25741 of the Public
Resources Code.
(h) If any provision of this section or the application of any
provision of this section is held invalid, biomethane delivered
through a common carrier pipeline pursuant to a contract executed
within 180 days of, or at any time subsequent to, the invalidation of
that provision shall not qualify as an eligible renewable energy
resource.
SECTION 1. Section 216 of the Public Utilities
Code is amended to read:
216. (a) "Public utility" includes every common carrier, toll
bridge corporation, pipeline corporation, gas corporation, electrical
corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water
corporation, sewer system corporation, and heat corporation, where
the service is performed for, or the commodity is delivered to, the
public or any portion thereof.
(b) Whenever a common carrier, toll bridge corporation, pipeline
corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, telephone
corporation, telegraph corporation, water corporation, sewer system
corporation, or heat corporation performs a service for, or delivers
a commodity to, the public or any portion thereof for which any
compensation or payment whatsoever is received, that common carrier,
toll bridge corporation, pipeline corporation, gas corporation,
electrical corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation,
water corporation, sewer system corporation, or heat corporation, is
a public utility subject to the jurisdiction, control, and
regulation of the commission and this part.
(c) When a person or corporation performs a service for, or
delivers a commodity to, any person, private corporation,
municipality, or other political subdivision of the state, that in
turn either directly or indirectly, mediately or immediately,
performs that service for, or delivers that commodity to, the public
or any portion thereof, that person or corporation is a public
utility subject to the jurisdiction, control, and regulation of the
commission and this part.
(d) Ownership or operation of a facility that employs cogeneration
technology or produces power from other than a conventional power
source or the ownership or operation of a facility which employs
landfill gas technology does not make a corporation or person a
public utility within the meaning of this section solely because of
the ownership or operation of that facility.
(e) A corporation or person engaged directly or indirectly in
developing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or
selling any form of heat derived from geothermal or solar resources
or from cogeneration technology to a privately owned or publicly
owned public utility, or to the public or any portion thereof, is not
a public utility within the meaning of this section solely by reason
of engaging in any of those activities.
(f) The ownership or operation of a facility that sells compressed
natural gas at retail to the public for use only as a motor vehicle
fuel, and the selling of compressed natural gas at retail from that
facility to the public for use only as a motor vehicle fuel, does not
make the corporation or person a public utility within the meaning
of this section solely because of that ownership, operation, or sale.
(g) Ownership or operation of a facility that is an exempt
wholesale generator, as defined in the Public Utility Holding Company
Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 16451(6)), does not make a corporation
or person a public utility within the meaning of this section, solely
due to the ownership or operation of that facility.
(h) The ownership, control, operation, or management of an
electric plant used for direct transactions or participation directly
or indirectly in direct transactions, as permitted by subdivision
(b) of Section 365, sales into a market established and operated by
the Independent System Operator or any other wholesale electricity
market, or the use or sale as permitted under subdivisions (b) to
(d), inclusive, of Section 218, shall not make a corporation or
person a public utility within the meaning of this section solely
because of that ownership, participation, or sale.
(i) The ownership, control, operation, or management of a facility
that supplies electricity to the public only for use to charge light
duty plug-in electric vehicles does not make the corporation or
person a public utility within the meaning of this section solely
because of that ownership, control, operation, or management. For
purposes of this subdivision, "light duty plug-in electric vehicles"
includes light duty battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles. This subdivision does not affect the commission's authority
under Section 454 or 740.2 or any other applicable statute.