California Set to Increase Renewable Portfolio Standard
10/7/2009

Summary:

Stoel Rives attorney Dina Dubson discussed in Sustainable Industries efforts by the state of California to increase its Renewable Portfolio Standard ("RPS"). California's current RPS mandates electricity companies to generate at least 20 percent of their energy production from renewable energy sources by 2010. In early September, the California legislature passed two bills increasing the RPS to one-third by 2020. Arguing that out-of-state import restrictions included in the bills would drive up energy costs, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promised a veto, and instead issued an Executive Order directing the California Air Resources Board to enact regulations to implement a 33 percent RPS by 2020.

Dubson said that the Governor's executive order could face legal challenges, specifically on limits of the state air board's authority. "It could get tied up in litigation and delay [RPS] implementation."

Read the Sustainable Industries article

"California Debates Over Energy Origins" was published by Sustainable Industries, October 7, 2009.