The California Public Utilities Commission has adopted Decision 13-05-034, approving PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E’s joint standard contract for California’s expanded feed-in tariff (FiT) program. D.13-05-034 also revises several provisions of the FiT tariff and addresses two petitions to modify D.12-05-035, the Commission’s previous decision implementing the expanded FiT. The most recent legislation affecting the FiT, SB 1122 (2012), directing the utilities to procure 250 MW from bioenergy projects, is not addressed in D.13-05-034, but will be implemented in a later decision.

Barring any delays in finalizing the contract and tariff revisions ordered in D.13-05-034, the utilities will begin accepting Program Participation Requests for the new FiT on October 1, 2013 and the first bi-monthly FiT program period will commence November 1, 2013.

For details on changes to the FiT approved in D.13-05-034, and requests for modification rejected by the Commission, read on.Continue Reading CPUC Approves Standard Contract for New California Feed-In Tariff

Voting is underway for the 2013 Hottest Partners in Biofuels and BioBased Products, a poll conducted by our friend Jim Lane of Biofuels Digest. Poll categories include:

  • Distributors
  • Engineering, procurement & construction
  • Enzymes, yeasts & sugars
  • Feedstocks (energy crops)
  • Feedstocks (gases and residues)
  • Finance (early-stage)
  • Finance (commercialization)
  • Lab services
  • Pretreatment systems
  • Professional counselors

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On May 9, 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission adopted Resolution E-4582, scheduling the fourth Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM) auction to close on June 28, 2013 and setting a fifth RAM auction for no later than June 27, 2014. The RAM program allows renewable energy developers to bid their 3 MW to 20 MW projects to …

Almost three years ago, I reported that  the White House Council on Environmental Quality had issued the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force.  Since that time, the Nation Ocean Council, formed by President Obama in Executive Order 13547, has been working diligently to prepare an agency roadmap to put the new National Ocean Policy into action.…