California continues to see growth in alternative and clean energy initiatives.  Below is a sample of recent notable developments.

Solar Panels on Every Home Starting 2020

The California Energy Commission (CEC) voted on May 9, 2018 to impose additional energy efficiency building standards, including the requirement that starting in 2020, new homes (with some exceptions) have solar panels.  The CEC hopes this will cut energy use in new homes by 50%, and claims that this additional building standard will reduce greenhouse gas emission by an amount equivalent to removing 115,000 fossil fuel cars off the road.  While environmentalists and building associations have hailed this decision as ground-breaking, others called it "admirable but misguided" because of the potential to exacerbate power grid operation and efficiency issues.

California Invests in the Electrification of Transportation

In working toward the mandated clean air and greenhouse reduction goals for 2030, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on May 31, 2018 committed to invest $738 million in transportation electrification projects to be implemented by the state's electric utilities.CPUC授权州公用设施实施项目扩充住宅、工作场所和公共电动车辆收费站大部分资金(5.78亿美元)分配用于建设基础设施并提供回扣支持中型或重型商业车辆电气化。Jerry Brown目标到2030年实现California红木海岸能源局为离Eureka20里的项目选择浮近岸风法CRCEA和选定公司财团组成H.T.Harvey & Associates and Herrera Environmental Consultants Inc.) are currently in the process of finalizing a public-private partnership agreement to  work toward designing and building this project.

Bill on Control of California's Power Grid Survives Key Votes

On June 19, 2018 and June 27, 2018, California's Senate Energy and Communications and Senate Judiciary committees voted in favor of AB-813, a bill backed by Governor Jerry Brown which would transfer control of California's power grid from the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) to a regional operator.  As a result, the regional operator would be governed by a multi-state board that answers to federal regulators (i.e., FERC) rather than the governor of California who currently appoints the governing board of Cal-ISO.Supporters argue that consumers will save money, as much as $1.5 billion a year, and that there will be wider distribution of electricity generated by renewable sources.  In contrast, opponents believe that this law would undermine California's environmental policy by exposing California's environmentally-friendly laws to federal preemption legal challenges (which, have occurred and succeeded in other states that have regionalized their grids), and also force Californians to purchase energy from fewer clean sources, produced in neighboring states such as Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona.  The bill now advances to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Covington continues to stay abreast of these developments and others around the country and globe to best advise its clients.

Earlier this week, President Trump released the outline of his infrastructure plan, which includes over three dozen proposals intended to reduce delay, inefficiency and redundancy in the project permitting process.  The plan contemplates amendments to major federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act.

The chief goal of the proposed reforms—highlighted in both the President's recent State of the Union Address and an earlier Executive Order—is to streamline the permitting process so that federal agencies approve projects in two years or less.  The plan establishes a "firm deadline" for lead agencies to complete environmental reviews and issue a Record of Decision (ROD) under NEPA within 21 months, and requires them (or a state agency acting pursuant to delegated authority) to issue or deny any necessary permits within 3 months thereafter.

The plan lacks detail regarding just how such a deadline would be enforced, stating only that "appropriate enforcement mechanisms" would be established.  What these might be appears to be in flux:  an earlier draft plan, made public about two weeks before the President's official release, outlined a review process by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council for agencies that missed deadlines.  This process was omitted from the final product.

The guiding principle underlying many of the proposed reforms is eliminating overlapping agency authority and duplicative review in the permitting and review process.  For example, the plan establishes a "One Agency, One Decision" environmental review structure, and requires a single environmental review document and ROD to be signed by all involved agencies.  Agencies would be directed to focus only on their areas of "special expertise," and would be permitted to rely on the determinations of other agencies that certain projects are categorically exempt from environmental review, instead of having to conduct their own independent assessment.  As another example, the authority to issue dredge and fill permits under section 404 of the Clean Water Act would be consolidated in the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers.  The Corps would gain final authority to construe the jurisdictional terms "navigable waters"/"waters of the U.S." under section 404 of the Act—authority that currently rests with EPA, though both agencies currently exercise it pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement—and EPA would lose its current ability to veto a 404 permit.

The plan also contains a number of other provisions intended to speed the infrastructure permitting process, including calling for procedures to expedite review for projects likely to result in positive environmental impacts, and limiting the availability of injunctive relief to stop projects that have already been approved pending a court challenge.  The plan also requests that two pilot programs be established which would exempt projects wholesale from environmental review in lieu of performance-based review or negotiated environmental mitigation.

Several of the proposed changes, including the idea of setting deadlines for agency action, draw from the report Two Years, Not Ten Years: Redesigning Infrastructure Approvals, issued by the nonpartisan reform organization Common Good.  Philip K.hrefs/www.cov.com/en/donald Elliott 和Gary Guzy 、EPA前总顾问和公司环境实践集团成员都提供无偿法律咨询 //www.ludikid.com/2017/09/california-looks-ahead-to-s-b-100/ ingrid Rechtin 2017年9月9日Sat13:34:48+00 加利福尼亚环境与气候策略 可再生能源 //www.ludikid.com/?p=6818 加利福尼亚州继续巩固其在可再生能源政策和气候变化改革方面的全球领先地位。要求加利福尼亚公共事业公司到2045年从可再生能源采购100%的能源百元获批Continue Reading… p对齐表示s/leginfo.legislative.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?billid=2017180SB100i/a)要求加利福尼亚水电公司到2045年从可再生能源采购100%的能源下院分配委和全院将于2017年9月15日立法会议结束前投票表决。

s.继续测试 When renewable sources are incorporated into the grid, variability in renewables—when the sun doesn't shine, or the wind fluctuates—can create a supply problem unless the grid is engineered to efficiently store renewable energy or adjust (for example, through demand side management or the use of natural gas-fired generation) for inconsistent output.  California uses a "baseload" approach—it continually runs conventional power plants at a minimum baseline—to account for renewable energy variability.  But, over-generation results when renewables are at peak output but the "baseline" is still maintained.  Consequently, this has led to occasional negative pricing of power (when generators pay grid operators to avoid curtailment).  Last spring, California experienced negative pricing due to substantial power generation from the continued expansion of solar farms combined with an increase in hydro reserves from the rainy winter.

Additional efforts outside of S.B.电池存储公司-从创业到多国巨头-以及太阳能和其他分布式能源提供商正在提供提高电网效率和可靠性的服务。

Key provisions of the new law: