BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 502
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 502
(Leno) - As Amended April 8, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill authorizes the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit
District (BART) to purchase electricity generated by a renewable
energy resource. Specifically, this bill:
SB 502
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1) Requires an electrical corporation that owns and
operates transmission and distribution facilities that
deliver electricity at one or more locations to BART, upon
request by BART, and without discrimination or delay, use
the facilities to deliver electricity generated by an
eligible renewable energy resource.
2) Defines eligible renewable energy resources as renewable
energy resources eligible under California's Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS) program.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Negligible state costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Rationale. According to the author, BART trains are 100%
electric, fueled by a power mix with a high percentage of
clean hydropower. Each weekday, BART riders prevent over 4.5
million pounds of polluting CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
The BART Board of Directors would like the ability to procure
more renewable energy by contracting directly with RPS
eligible renewable electric generation resources. Under
current law, those procurements would have to be done through
third party transactions managed by one of the sources of
electricity authorized for BART in state law. This
constitutes an unnecessary barrier this bill eliminates.
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2)Background. BART is a regional rapid transit system built in
1972 that services communities in the Bay Area, including
Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties,
with plans to expand to Santa Clara County. The BART system
has 44 stations and 104 miles of track with an estimated
average weekday ridership of 403,680 and 122 million trips
annually. BART trains are 100% electric with 53% of its power
coming from clean hydro and renewable sources. In addition,
the Federal Transportation Agency considers BART the cleanest
transit system in the United States.
Until 1995, BART procured its energy from its regional
investor owned utility (IOU), Pacific Gas & Electric Company
(PG&E). In 1995, the Legislature passed SB 184 (Kopp, Chapter
681, Statues of 1995), to allow BART to procure energy from a
federal power marketing agency or its successor. In 2004, the
Legislature passed SB 1201 (Torlakson, Chapter 613, Statutes
of 2004), to allow BART to also procure energy from a publicly
owned utility (POU).
As a result, BART currently procures its electricity from the
Northern California Power Agency, a local POU, and the Western
Area Power Administration, a federal agency. BART also
generates electricity from solar facilities located at BART
facilities
Currently, if BART wishes to procure renewable energy, it can
only do so through a federal power marketing authority or a
local POU. Allowing BART to directly procure electricity from
an eligible renewable energy resource would remove this
barrier and allow it to directly contract with eligible
renewable resources.
BART compensates PG&E for the use of the utility's
transmission and distribution system. As a result, other
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customers of PG&E are not impacted by transactions proposed by
this bill.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081