Discussions with Government Officials

CEERT frequently meets with state and local administrative officials to discuss clean-energy and climate issues, such as permitting and siting for renewable generation projects and the advancement of new, clean, cutting-edge technologies.

Recent Developments:

Central Procurement Entity

CEERT is participating in discussions about the establishment of a Central Procurement entity, as proposed by Governor Newsom in his January budget. That proposal designates the Department of Water Resources (DWR) as the Central Procurement entity for long lead-time resources such as offshore wind, geothermal, and pumped hydro energy storage. The proposal is a variation on the idea of establishing a Central Procurement function at the CPUC to ensure that needed resources with system-wide benefits, such as geothermal, are able to be procured on behalf of all load-serving entities.

Considerable opposition has come from stakeholders, especially community choice aggregators, which fear an open-ended mandate would raise their procurement costs. In addition, there remains significant opposition to a large pumped hydro storage project at the Iron Mountain Mine in Riverside County.

The Legislature chose not to adopt the proposal the Governor submitted in the budget, but instead introduced legislation, AB 1373 by Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia. But the Governor’s office didn’t show up to support or speak on the bill in the Assembly Utilities Committee, and the measure was passed and sent to the Appropriations Committee, where it was amended to include procurement of offshore wind and geothermal but exclude pumped hydro and other energy storage technologies, among other amendments that the Administration did not favor. While AB 1373 passed the Assembly and is ready to be heard in the Senate Energy Committee in August, the Administration has said they don’t support the bill as amended, and would rather not have legislation this year, but instead rely on the CPUC and the investor-owned utilities to carry out the policy.

CEERT has been working with Americans for Clean Power California and consultant Nick Pappas on both central procurement and overall procurement, and has been convening biweekly calls among renewable developers, CCAs and NGOs to identify issues and concerns and explore possible compromises.