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California Energy Commission

California & U.S. Renewable Energy Legislation

This section provides a listing of solar-related legislation that are either approved or currently in session from the time the California Solar Initiative was launched. For previous legislative summaries, please see the Energy Commission's Office of Governmental Affairs summary of energy-related legislation.

Current Legislation

You can search to find the status of any bill in the California Legislature or the U.S. Congress through these links.

California Solar-Related Legislation, 2007-2008 Session

The list is arranged from the most current session and categorized by Assembly or Senate.

Assembly
  • Bill 532 (Wolk): (State property: solar energy)
  • Bill 940 (Krekorian): (Energy: solar energy)
  • Bill 1064 (Lieber): (Energy: heat corporations: self-generation incentive program)
  • Bill 1223 (Arambula): (Public utilities: net energy metering)
  • Bill 1451 (Leno): (Property tax: exclusion from newly constructed: active solar energy system)
  • Bill 1470 (Huffman): (Solar energy: solar water heating and efficiency act of 2007)
  • Bill 1714 (Levine): (Energy: solar energy systems)
Senate
  • Bill 324 (Migden): (Electricity: solar energy: low-income residential housing)

Past Legislation on Renewable Energy

Year Bill No. & (Author) Chapter Number Summary
1996 AB 1890 (Brulte) 854 "Provided the framework for the deregulation of the electricity market in California, created the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Power Exchange, and established the public goods surchage for investor-owned utilities. The surchage funded public interest programs including the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program and renewable energy programs under the Energy Commission, and efficiency programs under the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)."
1997 SB 90 (Sher) 905 Provided the administrative and expenditure criteria necessary to implement the renewables support and public interest RD&D provisions for AB 1890.
2000 AB 995 (Wright)
and
AB 1194 (Sher)		 1051 "Extended the public goods surcharge on electricity to fund public interest energy research, renewable energy support, and efficiency programs for 10 years."
2002 SB 1078 (Sher) 516 "Established the renewable portfolio standard, requiring retail sellers of electricity to increase procurement of electricity from renewable energy sources by at least 1 percent of retail sales per year until their portfolio of renewable energy increases to 20 percent. Set the deadline for reaching this threshhold at 2017. Required municipal utilities to implement and enforce their own such program."
2006 AB 32 (Nuñez) 488 "Enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, requiring the Air Resources Board to adopt regulations aimed at curbing GHG emissions."
2006 AB 2723 (Pavley) 064 Electricity: solar energy: low-income residential housing
2006 AB 2778 (Lieber) 793 Electricity: self-generation incentive program
2006 SB 1 (Murray) 132 "Established the California Solar Initiative. Required the Energy Commission and the CPUC to implement a program aimed at installing 3,000 megawatts of solar energy systems on new and existing residential and commerical sites and placing solar energy systems on 50% of new homes by 2020."
2006 SB 107 (Smitian) 464 Accelerated the 20% target of the Renewable Portfolio Standard from 2017 to 2010. Also redirected funds toward the Existing Renewable Resources Account to achieve competitive and self-sustaining renewable facilities.
2006 SB 1250 (Perata) 512 "Reauthorized the Energy Commisssion's PIER Program and the Renewable Energy Program for five years, and established specific goals for the PIER program."

AB = Assembly Bill, SB = Senate Bill

Source: Office of Governmental Affairs, California Energy Commission