SB 1020

Bill Subjects

Abstract

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. The act requires the state board to conduct a series of public workshops to give interested parties an opportunity to comment on the plan and requires a portion of those workshops to be conducted in regions of the state that have the most significant exposure to pollutants. The act specifically includes as regions for these workshops communities with minority populations, communities with low-income populations, or both. This bill would instead include as regions for these workshops federal extreme nonattainment areas that have communities with minority populations, communities with low-income populations, or both. Under existing law, it is the policy of the state that eligible renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources supply 100% of all retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers and 100% of electricity procured to serve all state agencies by December 31, 2045. This bill would revise that state policy to instead provide that eligible renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources supply 90% of all retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers by December 31, 2035, 95% of all retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers by December 31, 2040, 100% of all retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers by December 31, 2045, and 100% of electricity procured to serve all state agencies by December 31, 2035, as specified. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires the PUC to ensure that facilities needed to maintain the reliability of the electrical supply remain available and operational. Existing law establishes an Independent System Operator (ISO) as a nonprofit public benefit corporation and requires the ISO to ensure efficient use and reliable operation of the electrical transmission grid consistent with achieving planning and operating reserve criteria no less stringent than those established by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and the North American Electric Reliability Council. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in consultation with the PUC, ISO, transmission owners, users, and consumers, to adopt a strategic plan for the state's electrical transmission grid using existing resources in order to identify and recommend actions required to implement investments needed to ensure reliability, relieve congestion, and meet future growth in load and generation. This bill would authorize the PUC and Energy Commission, upon request of the ISO, to disclose to the ISO confidential information relating to power purchase agreements with electric generation and energy storage projects for purposes of transmission planning. This bill would require the PUC, Energy Commission, and state board, on or before December 1, 2023, and annually thereafter, to issue a joint reliability progress report that reviews system and local reliability within the context of that state policy described above, with a particular focus on summer reliability, identifies challenges and gaps, if any, to achieving system and local reliability, and identifies the amount and cause of any delays to achieving compliance with all energy and capacity procurement requirements set by the PUC. This bill would require the PUC to develop a definition of energy affordability, as specified, and to use energy affordability metrics to guide the development of any protections, incentives, discounts, or new programs to assist residential customers facing hardships or disconnections due to electricity or gas bills and to assess the impact of proposed rate increases on different types of residential customers. The California Public Records Act requires a public agency, defined to mean a state or local agency, to make its public records available for public inspection and to make copies available upon request and payment of a fee, unless the public records are exempt from disclosure. The act makes specified records exempt from disclosure and provides that disclosure by a state or local agency of a public record that is otherwise exempt constitutes a waiver of the exemptions. This bill would specify that a disclosure made through the sharing of information between the ISO and a state agency does not constitute a waiver of the exemptions. Existing law prohibits information furnished to the PUC by a public utility, a business that is a subsidiary or affiliate of a public utility, or a corporation that holds a controlling interest in a public utility from being open to public inspection or made public, except as specified. This bill would authorize a present officer or employee of the PUC to share information with the ISO pursuant to an agreement to treat the shared information as confidential. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because certain of the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.