The lower house Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee early in July passed out two measures that are gaining traction before the California state legislature takes its month-long summer recess. They would create a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal siting process and increase the state’s renewable energy goal to 33% by 2020.

In the other side of the legislature, the Senate Utilities and Communications Committee last week approved the Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act (AB 1470) to create a 10-year, $250 million program providing consumer rebates for solar water heating systems. One of its prime sponsoring organizations, Environment California, called solar water heating “underutilized in the United States, but thriving in Europe and Asia.”

AB 1470 is viewed as complementary to the Million Solar Roofs bill passed last year to launch the state’s 10-year initiative to place solar photovoltaic systems on residential and business rooftops to produce electricity from the sun’s rays. The water heating bill is geared for using solar energy to heat water and store it for use later. Bernadette Del Chiaro, Environment California’s Sacramento clean energy advocate, called the bill “a no-brainer solution to our energy and environmental problems.”

The Senate committee also cleared a revised bill to provide more incentives for cogeneration, but limit eligible systems to 20 MW or smaller in size. More specific rates for the eligible cogeneration customers also are now included in the revised proposal.

Regarding the two Assembly committee-passed bills, a veteran energy lobbyist in Sacramento called them “pretty significant measures that are still moving forward.” It is unknown how far they will move into Natural Resources and perhaps other committees in the Assembly before the start of the recess July 20. Both measures are being championed by Northern California state lawmaker Sen. Joe Simitian, who is pushing a number of environmental and energy proposals.

The LNG bill, SB 412, would establish the LNG Terminal Evaluation Act to “make an LNG needs assessment study that analyzes supply/demand for natural gas and alternatives to meet future demands” and to determine the number of LNG terminals, if any, needed to meet California’s long-term natural gas demand. The California Energy Commission would be mandated to make the assessment.

The measure would do two other things: require the state’s governor to veto any LNG terminal proposal that does not meet the “environmental, consumer protection and market transparency criteria specified” in the law, and require the CEC to provide on-line a matrix on each project proponent’s permit status in meeting the specified criteria.

Simitian said there is “no coherent process” for addressing LNG siting, and he intends his legislation to eliminate what he considers the state’s current “piecemeal permitting review” that fails to allow an adequate comparison of the competing proposals.

For renewables, Simitian’s legislative effort, SB 411, would increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard goal from 20% in 2010 to 33% by 2020. Simitian is promoting the legislation as an extension of the state’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, now undergoing a multi-year implementation.

“According to our state energy agencies, California’s electricity [generation] sector produced about 108 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2004, an increase of 35% above 1990 levels,” a Simitian fact sheet on SB 411 says. “Furthermore, emissions from the electricity sector are increasing twice as fast as emissions from any other sector, including transportation. Electricity generation now accounts for 32% of California’s gross carbon dioxide emissions.”

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