California Solar Initiative Handbook Update: Warranty Requirements
Morten Lund reports:
The California Solar Initiative Handbook was updated June 8, 2010. The new version can be found by clicking here.
Of particular interest are changes to Section 2.4 (warranty requirements). These changes are not necessarily substantively significant, but may require some manufacturers and contractors/installers to conform their warranty language in order to ensure continued eligibility for CSI payments.
February 9 Breakfast Seminar on Developing, Permitting and Financing Biomass Facilities
During the WORLD AG EXPO in Tulare, CA on February 9, Stoel Rives will be hosting a Breakfast Seminar on Developing, Permiting and Financing Biomass Facilities. The seminar will take place in the Sequoia Room of the Hampton Inn and Suites, 1100 N. Cherry Street, which is near the Expo Site. The Seminar will be complimentary (breakfast included), and attendees will receive a copy of The Law of Biomass - the newest and 10th book in the Stoel Rives "Law of" series.
Please join attorneys John M. Eustermann, Michael N. Mills, Rebecca B. Sandberg, Lee N. Smith and Joe R. Thompson as they address the following agenda items:
- California Environmental Regulatory Update
- Successfully Bringing a Project to Commercial Operations
- Financing Your Biomass Project
The first portion of our seminar will explore new legislation and regulations affecting initial decision-making and the permitting process for biomass facilities. The second portion will discuss those issues the project developer will need to deal with in order to successfully develop a financeable project. The final hour will be dedicated to the financing aspect of biomass projects.
Click here for more details and to register for The Resurgence in Biomass Facilities: What You Need to Know to Develop, Permit and Finance Your Project .
CPUC Proposed Decision on TRECs--Comments Due January 19
The California Public Utilities Commission ("CPUC") issued a proposed decision on December 23, 2009 that would, if adopted, allow California investor-owned utilities, energy service providers, and community choice aggregators to purchase renewable energy credits alone, without the associated energy (sometimes referred to as "unbundled renewable energy credits ("RECs)" or "tradable RECs"), to satisfy their obligations under California's RPS. California's largest investor-owned utilities—Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric—would be limited to meeting no more than 40% of their annual procurement targets under the RPS with tradable RECs, and a price cap of $50 would be imposed. The CPUC will revisit both the percentage cap and the cost cap and whether those caps should be revised within 24 months of the decision.
Out-of-state renewable energy projects could be adversely impacted if the proposed order were adopted. The proposed decision would define all renewable generation purchased from out-of-state facilities1 as the purchase of unbundled or tradable RECs, making any out-of-state renewable energy sale subject to the cap that bars the large investor-owned utilities from using such sales to meet more than 40% of their overall RPS obligation. Although the proposed decision states that this classification would apply only to contracts signed on or after the effective date of the decision, contracts signed prior to the effective date would be considered REC-only contracts from the effective date forward, and would be "subject to the limits and rules applying to REC-only contracts" according to the proposed decision. Furthermore, although the purchase of tradable RECs from out-of-state facilities would be permitted, the delivery requirement in the RPS legislation would still have to be met, so a comparable amount of power would have to be imported into the state, along with the RECs. The jurisdiction to determine whether and how this delivery requirement is met, however, still remains with the California Energy Commission.
Comments on the proposed decision are due on January 19, 2010, and reply comments are due January 25, 2010.
For additional information about the history and effect of the proposed decision, see our Stoel Rives alert on the topic.
Will California be Able to Regulate GHG Tailpipe Emissions?
The California Air Resources Board may soon get its wish. Back in 2005, ARB first requested a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to allow California to regulate motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. EPA denied the waiver two years later, after California threatened to sue EPA to force the agency to take action on the request. The very day after President Obama's inauguration into office, ARB filed with EPA a request for reconsideration of its waiver request. Several days later, President Obama himself signed a Presidential Memorandum directing EPA to assess whether denial of the waiver was appropriate in light of the Clean Air Act. Last Friday, Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, issued a Notice for Public Hearing and Comment on California's request for consideration of the previous waiver denial, which officially initiates reconsideration by EPA. Discussion at the public hearing on March 5, 2009 may get interesting, as the Notice's 'supplementary information' included a brief discussion on how the waiver denial had "significantly departed from EPA's longstanding interpretation of the Clean Air Act's waiver provisions and from the Agency's history, after appropriate review, of granting waivers to California for its new motor vehicle emission program." Stay tuned.
California ARB's request for a waiver is premised on the Clean Air Act provision that allows states to enact stricter motor vehicle emission standards than the federal government's, provided EPA has approved a waiver for the state to do so. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA must grant a waiver unless it finds that the state:
- was arbitrary and capricious in its finding that its proposed standards are in the aggregate at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards,
- does not need such standards to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions, or
- has proposed standards not consistent with section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.
In denying ARB's original waiver request, the EPA administrator at the time, Stephen Johnson, noted that President Bush had just signed an energy bill that would work to reduce emissions throughout the U.S. and that increased fuel economy standards. The energy bill increased fuel efficiency for new cars and light trucks by 40% by 202, to an average of 35 mpg. This is in fact the biggest increase by Congress in fuel economy standards since the program was created in 1975. As Johnson announced in December 2007, "The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution, not a confusing patchwork of state rules." It's true that if the waiver is granted, California would enact a more stringent fuel economy standard than in any other state. But, 16 other states have pledged that if California can move forward with its higher standard, they would in turn adopt California's standard as their own.
