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Schwarzenegger Seeking Greener Energy Contracts

Gov. Schwarzenegger asked state energy regulators Wednesday to step up the pace in helping utilities enter long-term electricity contracts and buy more renewable energy. The governor said he feared shortages could occur as soon as 2006. In a letter to Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, Schwarzenegger said he'd like to see utilities getting 20 percent of their power from green sources, such as solar and wind, by 2010 instead of 2017. He also urged the PUC to move up by two years a requirement that utilities keep a 15 percent electricity reserve by 2008 and to finish writing regulations that let utilities sign long-term contracts for electricity — suggesting that these two steps could encourage companies to build much-needed power plants. The Legislature passed a bill in 2002 directing the PUC to establish the renewable standards, reserve levels and utility contract procedures, but the commission hasn't finished writing the regulations that implement all of those provisions. Sen. Debra Bowen, chairwoman of the Senate Energy Committee, said Schwarzenegger's support for conservation and real-time metering were encouraging. And while the brief glimpse at Schwarzenegger's energy vision was "a start," she said, it lacks many details. Of particular interest, Bowen said, was […]

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Bid to Revive Energy Legislation Via Unrelated Bill Fails in Senate

The Senate yesterday derailed efforts to revive long-stalled energy legislation, further dimming the prospects for approval this year of a broad initiative to expand energy production, encourage conservation and streamline the nation's overburdened electricity grid. In back-to-back votes, the Senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass either ethanol-production incentives or a much broader, 900-page package of energy proposals as part of an unrelated bill to extend an expired ban on Internet access taxes. It also voted to impose limits on other amendments to the Internet tax bill, effectively blocking Democrats, led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), from trying to add a proposal to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour over the next two years. Kennedy staffers said the senator is likely to try to attach the minimum-wage proposal to a bill aimed at curbing class-action lawsuits, which Republican leadership aides said will probably come up in early June. GOP senators plan to offer an alternative with a smaller wage increase and with tax breaks to help small businesses pay the higher wages. The energy legislation, including a slimmed-down version of a proposed House-Senate compromise, has been bogged down in the Senate for […]

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