California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS RELEASE Media Contact: Terrie Prosper, 415.703.1366, news@cpuc.ca.gov

CPUC APPLAUDS 33 PERCENT RENEWABLE ENERGY BILL SIGNING

SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2011 - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today applauded Governor Jerry Brown's signing of Senate Bill 2 (First Extraordinary Session), which will extend the current 20 percent renewable energy goal by 2010 to a 33 percent goal by December 31, 2020.

California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) is the most ambitious in the country, requiring investor-owned utilities, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators to procure 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010. Former Governor Schwarzenegger's Executive Orders S-14-08, issued on November 17, 2008, and S-21-09, issued on September 15, 2009, established a further goal of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020. Today's signing of Senate Bill 2 (Simitian, D-Palo Alto) codifies this goal into law.

"We applaud the Governor's signing of this important bill, which will decrease California's use of fossil fuel generation and improve our environment," said CPUC President Michael R. Peevey. "We look forward to working with the Legislature to make refinements so that the path to 33 percent contains no inefficiencies. We will also continue to oversee the work of the state's utilities to ensure they achieve our groundbreaking renewable energy goal. The CPUC has already adopted 40 decisions to implement the existing RPS Program, and retail sellers have procured thousands of new renewable megawatts under the current structure."

Collectively, the large investor-owned utilities reported that they have served 17.9 percent of their electricity with RPS-eligible generation in 2010, up from 15.4 percent in 2009. Pacific Gas and Electric Company served 17.7 percent of its 2010 load with RPS-eligible renewable energy, Southern California Edison with 19.4 percent, and San Diego Gas and Electric Company with 11.9 percent.

To date, 2,000 megawatts (MW) of new renewable capacity has achieved commercial operation under the RPS program; 300 MW of new renewable capacity has come online in the first quarter of 2011, with an additional 589 MW forecast to come online by the end of the year.

For more information on the RPS program, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov/renewables. 

For more information on the CPUC, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov.

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