California Public Utilities Commission Issues Final Decision on Renewables Portfolio Standard Content Categories of SB 2X

Meeting in San Francisco last Thursday, the Commission issued a final decision on the Renewables Portfolio Standard ("RPS") content categories-- the so-called "buckets" that we have referred to in previous advisories and blog entries.  Please read our advisory on a final breakdown of the decision and the impacts it will have on the energy industry both here in California and throughout the WECC.

Its worth noting that President Peevey issued a strong statement from the dias disagreeing with the content of this decision, but deciding to vote for it in order to give market participants some measure of certainty about the RPS market.  His hope, echoed by at least Commissioner Ferron, was to have some additional legislative cleanup to Senate Bill 2X to correct some of the odd unintended market abnormalities caused by the legislative language related to the buckets.

That's our hope as well, on behalf of our clients, but there's no predicting what the legislature will do, and their appetite to continue to meddle around with the RPS seems to be waning as their focus moves to other important issues.

There's still plenty of issues for the Commission to work on in the proceeding, including my personal favorite topic in the byzantine world of the RPS, the banking of Renewable Energy Credits-- so stay tuned.