BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1110|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1110
Author: Ting (D)
Amended: 8/18/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U. & C. COMMITTEE: 9-0, 7/13/15
AYES: Hueso, Cannella, Hertzberg, Hill, Lara, Leyva, McGuire,
Pavley, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fuller, Morrell
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
NOES: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/11/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Greenhouse gases emissions intensity reporting:
retail electricity suppliers
SOURCE: The Utility Reform Network
DIGEST: This bill requires every retail supplier of
electricity in California annually to report to its customers
the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the supplier's
electricity sources.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires every retail supplier of electricity to disclose the
sources of the supplier's electricity for the previous
calendar year. Each supplier is to make the disclosure
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Page 2
annually and in all product-specific written promotional
material. Statute directs the California Energy Commission
(CEC) to specify guidelines for the annual disclosure. The
disclosure is to be reliable, accurate, timely and simple to
understand. (Public Utilities Code §§398.1-398.5)
2)Requires retail sellers of electricity - investor-owned
utilities (IOU), community choice aggregators (CCAs), and
energy service providers (ESPs) - and publicly-owned utilities
(POUs) to increase purchases of renewable energy such that at
least 33 percent of retail sales are procured from renewable
energy resources by December 31, 2020. This is known as the
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). (Public Utilities Code
§399.11 et seq.)
3)Requires all renewable electricity products to meet the
requirements of a "loading order" that mandates minimum and
maximum quantities of three product categories (or "buckets"),
which includes (a) renewable resources directly connected to a
California balancing authority or provided in real time
without substitution from another energy source, (b) energy
not connected or delivered in real time yet still delivering
electricity, and (c) unbundled renewable energy credits
(RECs). (Public Utilities Code §399.16.)
4)Requires the reduction of statewide emissions of greenhouse
gases (GHGs) to 1990 levels by 2020. This is known as the
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. (Health and Safety Code
§38500 et seq.)
This bill:
1)Defines a retail supplier as an electrical corporation, local
publicly owned electric utility, ESP, and CCA.
2)Requires a retail supplier to disclose RPS-eligible energy
resources according to the three product content categories
defined in the RPS statute, commonly known as bucket one,
bucket two, and bucket three.
3)Adds to the disclosure requirement the emission of GHGs
associated with the electricity sources, calculated as the sum
of all annual emissions of GHGs divided by annual retail
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Page 3
electric sales, and consistent with the California Air
Resources Board's (ARB) GHG emissions reporting requirements.
4)Disallows adjustment to GHG emissions reporting resulting
from: (1) RECs, (2) offset credits, or (3) other attributes
acquired from any facility not providing the actual delivered
electricity used to serve a retail customer.
Background
Suppliers of electricity must disclose power sources. Existing
statute requires retail suppliers - IOUs, POUs, CCAs, and ESPs -
to disclose fuel source information to potential end-use
customers in a way that is accurate, reliable, and simple to
understand. The disclosure is governed by the CEC's Power
Source Disclosure Program, by which the CEC specifies a standard
format the retail suppliers are to use. That format is known as
the Power Content Label.
The Power Content Label presents retail supplier fuel source
information in two broad categories: (1) specific purchases and
(2) unspecified sources of power. The label breaks out the
first category - specific purchases - into several
subcategories: eligible renewables (meaning eligible for RPS
credit), coal, large hydroelectric, natural gas, nuclear, and
other. The label provides no additional detail to the second
category - unspecified sources of power - because such
electricity, by definition, is not traceable to a specific
generation source. In addition, the label presents comparison
data on the power mix for all retail electricity deliveries in
California. See PG&E's current Power Content Label below, as an
illustration of the Power Content Label:
-------------------------------------------------
| Pacific Gas and Electric Company |
| POWER CONTENT LABEL |
-------------------------------------------------
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
| | 2013 | 2013 CA |
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
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| ENERGY | POWER MIX | POWER MIX** |
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
| RESOURCES | (Actual) | |
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
| Eligible Renewable | 22% | 19% |
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
| -- Biomass & | 4%| 3%|
|waste | | |
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
| -- Geothermal | 5%| 4%|
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
| -- Small | | 2%| 1%|
|hydroelectric | | | |
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
| -- Solar | 5%| 2%|
-------------------------------------------------
| -- Wind | 6%| 9%|
-------------------------------------------------
| Coal | 0% | 8% |
-------------------------------------------------
| Large | 10% | 8% |
|Hydroelectric | | |
-------------------------------------------------
| Natural Gas | 28% | 44% |
-------------------------------------------------
| Nuclear | 22% | 9% |
-------------------------------------------------
| Other | 0% | 0% |
|-----------------------+-----------+-------------|
|Unspecified sources of | 18% | 12% |
|power* | | |
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
| TOTAL | | 100% | 100% |
| | | | |
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
|* "Unspecified sources of power" means |
|electricity from transactions that are not |
|traceable to specific generation sources. |
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-------------------------------------------------
| |
-------------------------------------------------
|** Percentages are estimated annually by the |
|California Energy Commission based on the |
|electricity sold to California consumers during |
|the previous year. |
-------------------------------------------------
| |
-------------------------------------------------
|For specific information about this electricity |
|product, contact Pacific Gas and Electric |
|Company. For general information about the |
|Power Content Label, contact the California |
|Energy Commission at 1-800-555-7794 or |
|www.energy.ca.gov/consumer. |
-------------------------------------------------
| |
-------------------------------------------------
| |
|-------------------------------------------------|
| |
| |
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It is important to note that the Power Content Label is not
meant to show a retail supplier's progress on meeting the
requirements of the RPS, which entails multi-year compliance
periods. Rather, the label shows a retail supplier's
electricity sources for the previous calendar year. In this
way, the label provides customers a snapshot of how "green" a
retail supplier's power was for a given period.
The Power Content Label is not without controversy. Some
parties contend the bill potentially confuses customers, despite
the statutory direction that the label be accurate, reliable,
and simple to understand. For example, some parties have
complained that the reporting periods and reporting
specifications required of retail suppliers of electricity
differ from the reporting periods and reporting specifications
of other state programs. Others contend the label misleads
customers on the supplier's progress in meeting the RPS.
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Page 6
Still others contend that the Power Content Label, first created
nearly two decades ago, needs updating to reflect the state's
current environmental policies and priorities. Specifically,
bill proponents argue the current Power Content Label should be
modified to include a single number - a GHG emissions factor -
that allows customers to easily and reliably understand the
effect of their energy use on the environment. Further, this
bill's proponents argue that the prescriptions that apply to
calculation of a GHG emissions factor to be included on the
Power Content Label should govern all such disclosures made by a
retail seller, including printed and electronic promotional
material. This bill would achieve these ends, by adding a GHG
emissions factor to the statute requiring power source
disclosure.
Prior/Related Legislation
SB 1305 (Sher, Chapter 796, Statutes of 1997) first required
retail suppliers to disclose their power sources.
AB 162 (Ruskin, Chapter 313, Statutes of 2009) modified and
streamlined power source disclosure reporting requirements for
POUs and other electricity providers.
SB 456 (Padilla, 2014) would have added two categories of fuel
source information to the Power Content Label: energy storage
and out-of-state generation. The bill passed the Senate on a
vote of 35-0 but was never heard in the Assembly.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Annual
on-going costs of approximately $130,000 from the Energy
Resources Program Account (General Fund) for additional workload
associated with expanding the information on the Power Content
Label.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/28/15)
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The Utility Reform Network (source)
California Clean Power
California Labor Federation
California State Association of Electrical Workers
California State Pipe Trades Council
Coalition of California Utility Employees
North Valley Labor Federation
Sierra Club California
Sonoma County Conservation Action
Vote Solar
Western States Council of Sheet Metal Workers
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/28/15)
California Municipal Utilities Association
Cities Association of Santa Clara County
City of Brisbane
LEAN Energy US
Marin Clean Energy
Northern California Power Agency
San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission
Sonoma Clean Power
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The author contends the disclosure of GHG
emissions associated with end-use electricity consumption is
entirely unregulated. Currently, a provider of electricity to
end users can make any GHG emissions claim using any calculation
methodology. Consumers are subjected to either no GHG emission
information or potentially unsubstantiated or conflicting GHG
emission information. California's electricity consumers need
easy-to-understand and reliable GHG emissions disclosures so
they can make informed decisions about their electricity usage
in order to reduce their carbon footprint.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION:Opponents argue the requirements of this
bill conflict with reporting requirements established by the RPS
program and AB 32 (Nuńez/Pavley, Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006).
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/11/15
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Page 8
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood
NO VOTE RECORDED: Atkins
Prepared by:Jay Dickenson / E., U., & C. / (916) 651-4107
8/31/15 16:39:38
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