The California Assembly passed Senate Bill 100 this week, setting a goal of supplying 100% of retail electricity in the state from carbon-free resources by 2045. On Wednesday, the Senate approved amendments to the bill and it’s expected to be signed by Governor Jerry Brown.
Under SB 100, utilities will be required to transition to electricity resources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, and nuclear power, the Wall Street Journal reported. Utilities have until 2045 to get there, with interim targets of 33% by 2020 and 50% by 2026. California joins Hawaii in having similar targets.
“Goals have to be credible,” Gov. Brown told the Wall Street Journal last week. “In order for the goal to be credible, we have to have the ingredients that will actually get us there.” Brown is hoping to cement an environmental legacy during his last year in office.
The Senate voted for an earlier version of the measure in May 2017, and on Tuesday the bill passed the Assembly by a vote of 44 to 33, Ivan Penn reported in the New York Times. The bill is expected to be made final by the close of the legislative session on Friday, Penn wrote.
Previously California lawmakers also mandated that half the generation needed to come from renewable sources by 2030. This latest legislation increases the renewables portfolio to 60%. Last year around 29% of the state’s electricity came from renewable sources, the Wall Street Journal’s Erin Ailworth and Alejandro Lazo reported, citing state data.
Although environmental groups and renewable energy proponents applauded the bill, opponents called the mandate overreaching, poorly thought out, and potentially costly, Penn reported. Republican assemblyman from Orange County Bill Brough criticized the bill, saying it would increase costs that would be passed on to ratepayers.
“The mandate for carbon-free electricity also faced strong criticism from investor-owned utilities, partly because they say it focused on only one source of greenhouse-gas emissions,” Penn wrote. “In California, the transportation sector produces more than two-thirds of those emissions.”
A PG&E spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that lawmakers “put the cart before the horse by approving a long-term procurement mandate that will affect utilities and their customers for more than 25 years without any assurance that the state’s utilities will remain financially stable and able to shoulder these new mandates in the face of growing wildfire risk.”
For their part, a spokesperson for San Diego Gas & Electric told the paper the utility wanted to see California do more to address greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
A recent report from the nonprofit think tank Next 10 found that EV growth benefits in California would outweigh energy system upgrade costs. “Existing utility, government and other private sector investments are underway to boost charging infrastructure,” the report authors wrote,” but additional expansion of infrastructure will be necessary.”
