CA Climate-Change Bill Passed, Electric Utilities To Target Oil Industry

CA Climate-Change Bill Passed, Electric Utilities To Target Oil Industry

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Let's call this one a good news, bad news, good news story.

On Friday, September 11, the California Senate approved SB 350, the Clean Energy and Reduction Act--by far the most far-reaching climate change legislation enacted in the U.S. The bill's provisions codify Governor Jerry Brown's goals of generating half the energy used in the state from renewable sources by 2030, and doubling the energy efficiency of buildings during the same period.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that a third goal, reducing petroleum use in vehicles by up to 50 percent, is no longer part of the legislation after amendments made last week in the Assembly. It was removed after intensive and high-dollar lobbying by the oil industry--focused on the message that jobs would be lost, gas prices would soar, and California's economy would become unviable if climate-change legislation were enacted.

Media coverage focused a great deal on the oil industry's success at quashing the petroleum-reduction goal, with angry reactions from a variety of groups. But it turns out there's some offsetting good news for that one, too.

In a day-after post on the NRDC Switchboard blog, Max Baumhefner of the Natural Resources Defense Council writes that amidst all the sturm und drang of high-dollar oil lobbying, the revised third part of SB 350 has been largely overlooked. News coverage of the bill's passage "focused on the oil companies' unsightly lobbying to remove a petroleum reduction goal from the bill," he writes. But "few have noticed the provisions of Senator Kevin de León's legislation that make replacing oil as the dominant transportation fuel a core mission of the electric industry." That goal allows "Californians to 'fill up' at home on cleaner electricity that's the cost equivalent of dollar-a-gallon gas."

The key is that "Senator de León's bill also establishes that a 'principal goal' of electric utility 'resource planning and investment' is 'to improve the environment and to encourage the diversity of energy resources through improvements in energy efficiency, development of renewable energy resources, and widespread transportation electrification. . . ."

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...with the Governor’s signature on this bill, we are also opening the next chapter in our transition to a clean transportation future. SB 350 makes it a core mission of our electrical utilities to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure, making driving an EV more convenient and more accessible for Californians at every income level, in every corner of our state. The bill creates something that has been missing in our transportation market for nearly a century – legitimate competition for oil as the predominant source of fuel. This is a quiet revolution for consumers, public health, and the California economy...

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Big Electric Shocks Big Oil

...California’s three large private utilities...see a chance to grab a piece of the $55 billion the state’s drivers spend each year filling up. “We really need to have a big push for charging,” Tony Earley, chief executive officer of PG&E, said in an Oct. 15 appearance at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club. “The charging station ought to be part of our grid infrastructure.”

Thanks to SB 350, it will be. Until 2014, utilities were blocked from owning or operating any charging stations, a step regulators took to foster competition in the emerging market. Under the new law, the utilities will be key to speeding up the switch to electric vehicles. PG&E has proposed installing thousands of charging stations in Northern and Central California over the next three years...

The oil industry says it will oppose utilities’ proposed charging station networks. “There have been numerous policies and proposals to reduce the role that petroleum products play in California’s energy economy over the years,” says Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association. “We are confident that the Public Utilities Commission will protect the interest of all ratepayers and that policymakers will protect the interest of taxpayers as the costs of electrification become clearer.”...

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edatoakrun said:

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I suppose the petroleum industry will also have our best interests at heart as they continue to attempt to force us to maintain their refueling monopoly, largely restricting our future choices when along California's highways to buying their own disgusting products, sold at exorbitant prices.

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