BILL ANALYSIS 1
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SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
ALEX PADILLA, CHAIR
SB 1153 - Hancock Hearing Date:
April 20, 2010 S
As Amended: April 5, 2010 FISCAL B
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DESCRIPTION
Current law requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) to
license thermal power plants over 50 megawatts and the plant's
related facilities including transmission lines, fuel supply
lines and water pipelines. The siting process is designed to
approve projects in 12-months through a one-stop permitting
process in which the CEC serves as the lead agency for all local
and state permitting and follows an environmental review process
that is functionally equivalent to the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA).
A Governor's Executive Order requires the CEC, Department of
Fish and Game and other agencies to initiate a natural
communities conservation plan (NCCP) for the Mojave and Colorado
Desert regions called the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation
Plan (DRECP) to facilitate the siting and permitting of
renewable generation and transmission projects and coordinate
the plan with the Bureau of Land Management, California Public
Utilities commission the California Independent System Operator,
and other interested federal, state, and local agencies, work
closely with interested stakeholders, and utilize input from
RETI.
This bill permits the CEC to designate sustainable renewable
energy zones, subject to the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA), to facilitate the siting of renewable energy
generation projects.
This bill defines renewable energy project as a solar
photovoltaic or wind project greater than 50 megawatts in size
for the purpose of establishing renewable energy generation
zones.
BACKGROUND
The RETI & the CTPG - The Renewable Energy Transmission
Initiative (RETI) was a statewide initiative to help identify
the transmission projects needed to accommodate the state's
renewable energy goals, support future energy policy, and
facilitate transmission corridor designation and transmission
and generation siting and permitting. The RETI held months of
meetings which included utilities, regulatory agencies,
environmental advocates, local governments, renewable developers
and others and produced a conceptual plan for renewable
transmission corridors throughout the state.
The ISO and other parties have now stepped in where the RETI
left off and formed the California Transmission Planning Group
(CTPG) which includes as members the state's investor owned
utilities and large local publicly owned electric utilities all
of which will ultimately be responsible for building the
transmission lines needed to reach the state's renewable energy
goals. The CTPG will do the planning and studies necessary to
evaluate the reliability impacts, costs and benefits of proposed
transmission projects using the conceptual plan of the RETI as a
starting point.
DRECP - The California Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan
(DRECP) was established by a Governor's Executive order to
accelerate the processing of renewable projects in the Mojave
and Colorado deserts regions of Southern California. These
regions have the greatest concentration of renewable resources
and envelope dozens of renewable energy zones identified by the
RETI as priority areas for cost-effective development with the
least environmental impacts.
The DRECP is an NCCP, which will help provide for effective
protection and conservation of desert ecosystems while allowing
for the appropriate development of renewable energy projects. It
will provide long-term endangered species permit assurances to
renewable energy developers and provide a process for
conservation funding to implement the DRECP. It will also serve
as the basis for one or more Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP)
under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
Recent legislation (SBX8 34, Padilla) will also permit solar
energy projects in the DRECP that area eligible for development
grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to meet
their endangered and threatened species mitigation obligations
by voluntarily paying fees for deposit into a fund which would
be used by DFG to complete the mitigation actions.
COMMENTS
1) Zone Designation . The author notes the good work of the
RETI but is concerned that it does not have the statutory
authority to implement or approve the renewable energy
zones that it so painstakingly identified. The authority
intends to give the CEC the authority to designate
sustainable energy zone which could be the same as those
identified by the RETI or the CEC could designate new
zones.
The author opines that "by allowing the CEC to utilize the
statewide data and resources they already have as a result
of the work established by RETI and other/previous working
groups they have been involved in, authorizing the CEC to
designate the development of sustainable energy zones is
most appropriate. This will not only streamline the siting
process for renewable energy, it will ensure the process is
done efficiently."
However the utility of authorizing the CEC to develop
sustainable energy zones is questionable for the following
reasons:
The primary purpose of the RETI was not to
facilitate the siting of generation but to determine
priority areas into which transmission should be
planned and sited;
The CTPG is using the work of the RETI as a
basis for its transmission planning and studies which
will fold into applications for transmission approval
to the ISO, CPUC and other responsible agencies;
The map of the DRECP envelopes the
overwhelming majority of renewable energy zones
identified by the RETI and a coordinated plan for
transmission and generation siting and environmental
projection is underway;
Directing an agency to undertake CEQA review
ahead of project development would result in an
environmental impact report (EIR) done by the CEC
which would be of little value to each project, at
great expense to ratepayers, while not relieving the
EIR obligation of each generation or transmission
project for its unique impact in the region; and
The renewable energy zones that fall outside
of the DRECP are few, are lower priority areas for
development, and have no assurance of ultimate project
development.
To address the author's concern that the work of the RETI
may not be appropriately acknowledged or utilized by the
implementing agencies for transmission planning, the author
and committee may wish to consider instead consider
directing the agencies responsible for transmission - the
California Independent System Operator and the California
Public Utilities Commission - to consider the work of the
RETI in its transmission planning and application review.
1) Technical Issues . The bill defines generation for
inclusion in the renewable energy zones as solar
photovoltaic and wind projects greater than 50 megawatts.
The work of the RETI considered all generation defined as
eligible under the Renewable Portfolio Standard with no
limit on the size of the generation. Should this bill move
forward in its current form, the author and committee may
wish to consider amending the definition of renewable
energy project to include all eligible RPS projects.
The bill requires the CEC to act as the lead agency and
perform an environmental review under CEQA. The CEC does
not currently utilize CEQA for the siting of generation
projects but a process that is the functional equivalent of
CEQA. Should this bill move forward in its current form,
the author and committee may wish to consider amending the
bill to direct the CEC to use its current CEQA-equivalent
environmental review process.
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Author
Support:
Strata Equity Group
Oppose:
None on file.
Kellie Smith
SB 1153 Analysis
Hearing Date: April 20, 2010